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PUNISHING SLAVERY: ENFORCING ABOLITION IN INTERWAR PERIOD ETHIOPIA [Abstract ID: 0507-06]
In 1921 Emperor Haile Selassie’s government prepared a report for the League of Nations on the plan to abolish slavery within Ethiopia. Deeply concerned with the implications across the empire, this report included detailed plans and legal regulations establishing precedents for the process of abolition. According to this proclamation, enslaved individuals would have access to courts to petition for freedom and resources to establish themselves in communities, and even access to schools until the age of eighteen. Additionally, there were provisions assigning punishments to those caught engaging in the slave trade which ranged from a fine and imprisonment to a life sentence. This paper draws upon the formal report on the policies of abolition in light of local Ethiopian prison records documenting sentences levied against slavers and their petitions for royal pardon. These documents, located at the National Archives in Addis Ababa, provide information on how the process of abolition was carried out in specific localities. While the imperial government was concerned with presenting progress on abolition, these provincial records highlight the complex negotiations which local officials navigated in the process of abolition.