The actual demise of slavery was a lengthy process in South America. Chile was the first country in South America to legally abolish slavery. But a few days after the first decree of 24 July 1823, another decree established a series of restrictions to awarding the legal free status to the former enslaved men and women. Eventually the Chilean Constitution enacted on 29 December 1823 permanently abolished slavery. On 12 December 1842, during the Uruguayan Civil War, Uruguay enacted a law abolishing slavery. But a system of apprenticeship was established for women and children and then reversed only with the end of the war in 1853 (Borucki, 2015, p. 136).  
During the next two decades, except for Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, slavery was abolished all over the Americas. In 1847, Sweden ended slavery in its American colony, Saint Barthélemy. In 1848, slavery was banned in the Danish West Indies, in Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana (Jennings, 2000). The regions of present-day Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama passed legislation prohibiting slavery in 1851 (effective 1 January 1852), most of Argentina in 1853, Peru and Venezuela in 1854, Bolivia in 1861, and Paraguay in 1869 (McGraw, 2014, pp. 28-29; Andrews, 1989, p. 57).