abolition

For abolition is understood to action and the consequence of abolishing. This verb, according to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), describes the fact of terminate, invalidate, cancel or repeal a custom, a precept or a law.

Associated with abolition arises the notion of abolitionism, which identifies the doctrine that promotes the revocation of those laws, decrees or precepts that do not respect human rights or contemplate the moral principles. In general, this idea is used to cite the movement that pursued the abolition of the slavery.

It should be noted that abolitionism had its own peculiarities in each nation. It is considered to Portugal as one of the pioneers in the field, since he was the Marquis of Pombal who decided to abolish slavery in that country around the year 1761. On 1854, decreed the liberation of all the slaves of its colonies, until, fifteen years later, the absolute abolition of slavery in the entire Portuguese empire took place.

In this area, we have to underline that one of the most important conflicts in history that had as its central axis said abolition of slavery was the American Civil War carried out in the 19th century. A warlike conflict in which the States of the North, which defined themselves as clearly anti-slavery, and those of the South, the so-called Confederate States of America, who were in favor of said slavery, faced each other.

This civil war had several causes, but one of the main ones was precisely the fact that that unjust and criminal subjugation was abolished in the north. However, at the end of the war and as a result of President Abraham Lincoln managing to defeat the south of the country, it would be repealed in 1865 throughout the territory.

The world of television and cinema has perfectly captured the cruelty of slavery through works such as, for example, the film Friendship (1997) by Steven Spielberg that revolves around the real case of a group of African slaves who were discovered by the United States on a Spanish ship in the mid-nineteenth century. These brought with them a controversy within said American society about whether to consider them free or whether to maintain their condition of slavery.

In the same way, we cannot overlook the value in this sense of the television series. North and south (1985) which revolves around two young people who become friends in a military academy and who will see their relationship broken when the aforementioned Civil War breaks out and they find themselves on rival sides: one in which they reject slavery and the other in which it supports.

Beyond the accepted usage that relates to slavery, abolition has many other meanings. The word is linked, for example, to a group that promotes that animals are not treated as property and that it strives to achieve recognition of the Rights of all species.

Abolitionism is also driven in relation to the forced prostitution, with the attempt to fight against the reasons that generate it (coercion, economic conditions, etc.).

On the other hand, there are abolitionist currents regarding the salaried work (considered to be an extension of slavery) and the jails (mostly for the punishments of crimes whose direct victims are not the people).