Mossoró proclaims abolition within its municipality

The first issue of O Libertador appeared in Fortaleza as the organ of the Sociedade Cearense Libertadora. It carried abolitionist arguments into public circulation and linked provincial organizing...

Provincial Law no. 1 required registration of enslaved people entering São Paulo and set a two-contos fee, with exceptions including some agricultural owners and up to three domestic servants. The law...

On 30 January 1881, jangadeiros in Fortaleza, including Francisco José do Nascimento (Chico da Matilde, later known as Dragão do Mar) and Antônio Napoleão, refused to carry enslaved people from...

On 1 January 1883, the village of Acarape in Ceará publicly marked the freeing of its remaining enslaved residents; it later became Redenção. The local campaign involved abolitionist organizers and...

On 9 May 1883, the Confederação Abolicionista was organized in Rio de Janeiro to coordinate antislavery societies from multiple provinces. The network advocated immediate abolition without...

On 25 March 1884, Ceará became the first Brazilian province to abolish slavery throughout its territory. This provincial act followed years of municipal emancipation, the jangadeiros’ refusal to...

Women met at the Nova Emancipadora’s headquarters and founded Ave Libertas, a women-led society that sought freedom for enslaved people in Recife. They elected interim officers and a committee to...

The society’s first dramatic benefit at Recife’s Teatro Santo Antônio used music, theater, poetry, and public sociability to raise support for emancipation. During the interval, Epiphania and Joaquina...

On 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...

A second theatrical benefit drew a full audience. Using the proceeds, the Ave Libertas society secured letters of freedom for three enslaved women whose names were not preserved in the newspaper...