Between the written and the practice: law and slavery in Brazil and Cuba, c.1760-1871

Author(s)

Waldomiro Lourenço da Silva Junior

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2015-06-29

Examining board members

Rafael de Bivar Marquese; Keila Grinberg; Beatriz Gallotti Mamigonian; Leonardo Marques; Andrea Slemian

• Advisor: Rafael de Bivar Marquese

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the role of the law in the slave system\'s dynamics in Brazil and Cuba during the long nineteenth century, from the fundamental connection between the transatlantic slave trade and the manumission. The main argument is that, if on the one hand the law created possibilities for the historical subjects victimized by slavery act creatively, seeking freedom in the courts, particularly, on the other, it was part of the structuring elements of those slave systems. Despite the similarities, the configuration assumed by the respective legal frameworks diverged as the essential topics, especially with regard to legal recognition of the right of slaves to the onerous manumission, which occurred early in Cuba, while, in Brazil, only in 1871, with the enactment of the Free Womb Law. The observed counterpoint does not lead to a new dichotomy between a milder and a severe slave system, but the understanding of the specific characters involving the regulation of slavery and the slave agency in those two spaces. (AU)