In the decade after the passage of the Moret Law, the number of enslaved people in Cuba decreased from nearly 300,000 to 200,000. Still, few of the emancipated slaves were individuals of working age (Scott, 2000, p. 73). On 28 September 1871, the Brazilian Congress passed the Rio Branco Law (Law No. 20140) freeing enslaved newborns. Yet the new law imposed several restrictions (Araújo, 2017, pp. 74-75). Moreover, in the province of São Paulo, slave owners who freed 158,093 slaves as a result of the Law of 1871 obtained approximately 414 contos and 882 mil-réis in financial compensation (Butler, 2000, p. 28). Meanwhile, following popular demonstrations in several Spanish cities, on 22 March 1873 the Spanish Parliament passed a law ending slavery in Puerto Rico, which freed around 29,335 enslaved individuals (Schmidt-Nowara, 1999, p. 153; Figueiroa 2005, p. 126). Yet, as in the British West Indies, the law established that newly freed slaves would have to work under three-year labour contracts with their former masters.  
Cuba maintained slavery for seven more years. Eventually, on 13 February 1880, the Patronato Law was passed by the Spanish Parliament. In theory, the new Law abolished slavery and established an eight-year period of apprenticeship. The patronato eventually ended on 7 October 1886, two years prior to the established  
date of 1888. As many patrocinados obtained their freedom in the five years that followed the creation of patronato, at the final demise of this system, Cuban registers included approximately 99,566 patrocinados (Scott, 2000, p. 140).