Enslaved Litigants, Emotions, and a Shifting Legal Landscape in Cauca, Colombia (1825–1831).

This article examines judicial practice in the Department of Cauca, Republic of Colombia, during the late 1820s through two criminal court cases involving enslaved litigants amid the transition from colonial rule to an independent republic. It highlights tensions between efforts to secularize the judiciary—emphasizing procedural due process—and the persistent influence of religious morality and emotions in legal decisions, particularly regarding enslaved individuals accused or accusing of crimes such as murder, adultery, and cruelty. The cases of Manuel Agustín Moreno, an enslaved man sentenced to death for murder, and María Lucas Domínguez, an enslaved woman whose accusations of cruelty and rape against her owner were overturned on appeal, illustrate how legal authorities navigated contradictions between upholding new constitutional mandates and maintaining social hierarchies rooted in slavery and Catholic moral values. The article reveals that despite formal legal reforms, notions of honor, morality, and fear shaped judicial outcomes, reflecting the complexities of administering justice in a society simultaneously committed to republican ideals and dependent on slavery.