Las Luces y el Negro: reflexiones ilustradas sobre la esclavitud en la América española
The Lights and the Negro: Enlightenment Thoughts on Slavery in Spanish America

Summary/Abstract: The Age of Discovery provoked enormous changes in every sphere of human activity. In their writings, enlightened philosophers such as William Robertson and Adam Smith reflected on the vast reality of the Americas, and one of their major concerns was the centuries-old presence of the Spanish Empire in the New World, as well as the many consequences its rule had for freedom in the region. But what kind of freedom were they thinking about and who should benefit from it –and why? The topic is vast, so here we focus on the most brutal lack of freedom, slavery, and the way it is analysed by enlightened minds like Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, and William Robertson in his History of America, with some comments on the subject from a representative of the Spanish Enlightenment, Isidoro de Antillón.

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