Joao Vitor Coelho
HIST 3401W – Final Exam Answers
Sarah Chambers
December 21, 2016
Part I
Most revolutionary movements of independence in Latin America during the late 18th
early 19th centuries had a common motto: liberty and equality. Since these colonies lived under
an economic system that extensively used slave labor (native or African) to benefit small Creole
and European elites, these two words were often used together as motives to justify uprisings
against European power and in support of independence – even if those revolutions did not start
from below. For each movement, it is important to understand the context in which those revolts
took place. Different populations, in countries with distinct demographic and economic
characteristics, had different meanings for the words “liberty” and “equality” as well as different
aspirations in their revolutionary movements. On this essay, the focus will be on three primary
documents from three particular movements in Latin America: first, the 1805 Constitution of
Haiti, proclaimed a year after the country’s independence; later, the Sentimientos de La Nación
written by José Maria Morelos in 1813, in the context of Mexican independence; and Simón
Bolívar’s Discurso de Angostura from 1819. Even though those three primary documents
mention frequently “liberty” and “equality”, the practical meaning of those words in each
country was not the same. While the Haitian Constitution takes a strong stance in abolishing
slavery, Morelos’s Sentimientos were in favor of a free society and with no castes, but only for
those who followed the official religion of Mexico – Catholicism.
The 1805 Haitian Constitution was the document that marked the consolidation of the
Haitian Revolution, the first successful independence movement in Latin America. Since the
movement started – and continued to be throughout its progress – a slave revolt (inspiring other
slave uprisings in the Caribbean as well), the new Constitution was clear in abolishing all kinds
of slavery (Constitution of Hayti, Art. 2), putting this statement as the second article in the
document []. The 12nd article in the constitution also makes this explicit by stating that “No
whiteman (…) should put his foot on this territory with the title of master or proprietor, neither
shall he in future acquire any property therein.” (Constitution of Hayti, Art. 12) For the Haitians,
freedom and equality consisted of two important concepts: the abolition of slavery and the slave
labor system implemented in St. Domingue by the French.
José María Morelos’s Sentimientos de Una Nación, written in the context of Mexican
independence, was also explicit in abolishing slavery “forever” (Morelos) in Mexico but also had
a remark about one important particularity of Mexican society at the time – the caste system. In
article 15th, Morelos argues that the caste system should be abolished along with slavery and and
only “vice and virtude” (Morelos) would distinguish one American from the other. A complex
system that created social classes based on race in Mexican colonial society, the caste system
was seen by the Mexican rebels as one of the main symbols of inequality in the country;
eliminating it could mean more freedom to Mexicans. However, independence and popular
liberty in Mexico did not mean freedom of belief: the 2nd article makes it clear that the Catholic
Church “would be the only one, without tolerance of any other.” (Morelos) This is a proof of
how strong the Church, present in Mexico since the early periods of Spanish invasion, still was
in the mindset of Mexican revolutionists.
The last example of liberty and equality used with a different meaning comes from Simón
Bolívar’s Discurso de Angostura, the opening speech of the 1819 Constitutional Congress of
Angostura. Regarding the new constitution of Venezuela, Bolívar created the concept of
“political equality” (Bolívar), an instrument that should be created by the government as a
compensation for existing inequalities (such as physical and moral) between people in the
country. However, Bolívar wanted to establish boundaries for civil liberties in Venezuela stating
that “indefinite freedom and absolute democracy are the stumbling blocks to which all
Republican hopes have shattered” (Bolívar). Bolívar was in favor of an intermediate system
between absolute democracy and absolute power, in which the supreme social liberty could be
