This paper analyzes and interprets the female slaves’ petitions for freedom (solicitudes de libertad) presented to the Board of Manumission (Junta de Manumision) of the jurisdiction of Medellin from 1821 through 1851. The structure of the paper follows the criteria of priority established by the aforementioned board; such criteria led to a hierarchical order in the manumission process. Therefore, the manumission was not considered as an expansive right for all people subjected to slavery, but, on the contrary, it was a gradual and calculated procedure. The aim of this investigation is to analyze the pressures women slaves were submitted to for the attainment of their manumission, the rhetorical ways to which they appealed for their freedom and the appropriation they made of social notions and normative discourses of the time to achieve such purpose. Through the reviewed cases it is shown how the process of abolition in Antioquia was marked by certain socioeconomic characteristics and, at the same time, by the defense of the masters to their property rights over the slaves.