Under López, Paraguay begins to tackle the…

Under López, Paraguay begins to tackle the question of slavery, which has existed since early colonial days.

Settlers had brought a few slaves to work as domestic servants, but were generally lenient about their bondage.

Conditions had worsened after 1700, however, with the importation of about fifty thousand African slaves to be used as agricultural workers.

Under Francia, the state had acquired about one thousand slaves when it confiscated property from the elite.

López does not free these slaves; instead, he enacts the 1842 Law of the Free Womb, which ends the slave trade and guarantees that the children of slaves will be free at age twenty-five, but the new law serves only to increase the slave population and depress slave prices as slave birthrates soared.