“Without liberty there is no honour”, nor democracy. Cuba, slavery and abolitionism in nineteenth century Spain’s empire

ABSTRACT Democratic ideas were used to legitimize both the need to abolish and to preserve the slave trade and slavery in the Spanish empire during the nineteenth century. This article will demonstrate that the relationship between “slavery” and “democracy” in the Spanish political debate is complex and changing. For political actors, on various places of the ideological spectrum, democratic ideas were presented both as incompatible with slavery and as a reason to oppose its abolition.