Only in the last few years have scholars begun to turn their attention to the history of freed people of color within the American slave regimes and, by extension, to the process of manumission. Perhaps it is exactly the absence of detailed studies that allowed for so much agreement.

Instead, a series of “reasonable” generalizations, based on scattered evidence or inferred from the demographic contours of the population as a whole, has characterized most statements about manumission. The basic questions of who, why, how, and how many have never been studied in depth. It is clear that very little is known about the process or how it operated. 3 Once this has been said, however, controversy again emerges over the motivations and functions of manumission, that is, the voluntary freeing of slaves.

Both those who see striking differences between Latin American and North American slavery and those who find disheartening similarity concur that access to freedom was easier in Latin America, and that the liberation of slaves was a widely practiced phenomena. Whereas a great deal of argument rages over the comparative history of the first two of these categories, over the third there seems to be general agreement. While these aspects may be interrelated there is no necessary connection between the first and third. This debate was greatly clarified and advanced by Eugene Genovese in his article, “The Treatment of Slaves in Different Countries,” in which he distinguished between three basic meanings of “treatment.” 2 Genovese recognized that the term “treatment” has been used at different times to describe 1) the day-to-day physical conditions of the slave 2) the existential conditions of life, the opportunities for familial, social, and religious expression and 3) access to freedom and citizenship. 1 Much of the controversy has centered on the treatment of slaves in the various slave regimes and under a variety of economic conditions. The history and nature of the slave regimes of the New World have been examined and hotly debated in national, regional, and comparative perspectives.

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