Law 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 could retain their services until age 21 or receive state compensation when they were released earlier. It also created an emancipation fund and recognized limited avenues for self-purchase. The law did not free mothers or dismantle slavery. Its gradualist design was a partial victory shaped by enslaved people’s resistance and reformers’ effort to protect slaveholding property.
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What was a limit of the Free Womb Law?
The law declared future-born children free but left extended custody/service claims.
The 1871 Free Womb Law immediately freed enslaved mothers.
It did not free mothers; it addressed children born after enactment.