On 3 May 1888, Princess Regent Isabel opened the parliamentary session with a speech urging lawmakers to remove slavery from Brazilian law. The address framed abolition as a national aspiration and...
On 10 May 1888, the Chamber of Deputies approved the proposal to abolish slavery. The rapid vote followed decades of Black resistance and a late-1880s surge in abolitionist mobilization. Parliamentary...
On 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...