Historical Organization
Empire of Brazil
Empire of Brazil
Details
Organization Timeline
Brazil declares independence while slavery remains central to its economy
📅 7 September 1822Independence from Portugal created a new state that maintained slavery and the Atlantic trade. Enslaved Africans and their descendants shaped Brazilian society and resisted bondage, while political...
Independence is proclaimed while slavery continues
📅 7 September 1822On 7 September 1822, Prince Pedro’s declaration at Ipiranga became the symbolic date of Brazilian independence. Independence unfolded unevenly: armed conflict and political negotiation continued in...
The imperial Constitution preserves a slaveholding order
📅 25 March 1824On 25 March 1824, Pedro I imposed Brazil’s first constitution. It defined political membership and rights while leaving slavery intact; its language of citizenship did not make enslaved people free or...
Brazil agrees to end the transatlantic slave trade after a transition period
📅 23 November 1826On 23 November 1826, Brazil and Britain signed a convention committing Brazil to end the African slave trade after a three-year transition. The agreement became enforceable in 1830, but Brazilian...
Pedro I abdicates amid popular mobilization
📅 7 April 1831On 7 April 1831, Pedro I abdicated the Brazilian throne amid political crisis and popular demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro. The abdication ushered in the Regency, a period of intense provincial...
The Eusébio de Queirós Law targets the Atlantic slave trade
📅 4 September 1850On 4 September 1850, Law no. 581 strengthened the imperial state’s authority to suppress the landing of enslaved Africans brought into Brazil by sea. It came after decades of treaty promises and...
The Land Law makes purchase the principal route to public land
📅 18 September 1850Law no. 601 of 18 September 1850 defined rules for public lands and regularizing existing occupation. It restricted new land claims through occupation alone and made purchase central to access to...
A new decree regulates implementation of the 1850 trade law
📅 14 November 1850Decree no. 731 of 14 November 1850 provided additional implementation rules for Law no. 581. Its place in the rapid sequence of regulations shows the imperial government building administrative...
A decree allocates fees from captured trafficking vessels
📅 14 November 1850Decree no. 731-A of 14 November 1850 set percentages of proceeds from seized trafficking vessels and their cargo, and from payments made after captures of Africans, for a Navy auditor and clerk....
The Empire creates the Voluntários da Pátria corps
📅 7 January 1865Decree no. 3,371 of 7 January 1865 organized volunteer battalions for the war against Paraguay. The call to arms unfolded within a slaveholding empire: military service offered some enslaved men a...
A decree frees state-owned enslaved men designated for army service
📅 6 November 1866Decree no. 3,725-A of 6 November 1866 ordered that enslaved people owned by the state (the “Nation”) and designated as fit for army service be freed for that service; it extended the same benefit to...
The Empire bars public auctions and display of enslaved people
📅 15 September 1869Decree no. 1,695 of 15 September 1869 prohibited selling enslaved people at public auction with a public cry and exhibition. The rule curtailed one degrading public practice but did not ban private...
Perdigão Malheiro challenges the government’s emancipation proposal
📅 12 July 1871In a Chamber of Deputies speech dated 12 July 1871, abolitionist jurist and deputy Perdigão Malheiro criticized the government’s gradual emancipation proposal. The debate was not a simple division...
The Free Womb Law declares future-born children free under conditions
📅 28 September 1871Law no. 2,040, enacted on 28 September 1871, declared children born to enslaved women after that date legally free. Yet the law left children under the authority of their mother’s enslaver, who...
Amazonas declares the province free of slavery
📅 10 July 1884On 10 July 1884, the province of Amazonas declared enslaved people in its territory free, following Ceará’s provincial abolition. Regional abolition reflected local campaigns and a wider crisis of the...
The Sexagenarian Law offers conditional freedom to some older people
📅 28 September 1885Law no. 3,270, enacted on 28 September 1885, regulated gradual extinction and provided freedom for some enslaved people aged 60 or older. Those freed at 60 could be required to provide up to three...
The Empire abolishes judicial sentences of flogging for enslaved defendants
📅 15 October 1886Law no. 3,310 of 15 October 1886 revoked provisions imposing the sentence of lashes on enslaved defendants, including part of the 1835 law that had imposed this punishment for certain offenses. It...
João Alfredo’s cabinet takes office as immediate abolition returns to the agenda
📅 10 March 1888On 10 March 1888, João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira formed a new imperial cabinet more willing to pursue the end of slavery. The cabinet change followed years of mass abolitionist mobilization,...
The government submits an immediate abolition bill to the Chamber
📅 8 May 1888On 8 May 1888, Minister of Agriculture Rodrigo Augusto da Silva presented the government’s proposal for the complete abolition of slavery to the Chamber of Deputies. The bill moved rapidly in response...
The Lei Áurea abolishes slavery throughout Brazil
📅 13 May 1888On 13 May 1888, the Senate approved the abolition bill and Princess Regent Isabel sanctioned Law no. 3,353, the Lei Áurea. Its two brief articles ended slavery in law across Brazil. The law did not...