José do Patrocínio launches the newspaper Cidade do Rio

The “Álbum abolicionista” reported Rita’s manumission without a future-service condition. Publishing this case alongside conditional releases made the difference between formal freedom and freedom...

A dated list records twenty-seven enslaved people fleeing from thirteen sugar estates across at least eight Pernambuco localities. It lists twenty men and seven women, aged fifteen to fifty-six, and...

A Redempção’s album recorded 47 manumissions in Cristina with differing terms: some unconditional, others tied to years of service or valuation arrangements. These varied conditions caution against...

A letter signed “Um caifaz” and titled “Bem feito” recounted the capture and punishment of a captain of the bush who had searched for fugitives. The episode is reported in a partisan newspaper and...

A Redempção used satire to ridicule fugitive catchers and describe free people being reduced to slavery. The issue challenged the everyday policing that could blur the boundary between enslaved and...

In a petition dated 25 October 1887, the Clube Militar asked Princess Regent Isabel not to use the Army to pursue people escaping slavery. The request challenged the military’s role in enforcing...

A Redempção argued that mass escapes and the “cleansing” of plantations had led enslavers to abandon claims over enslaved people. The editorial treats collective flight as a force that made the...

An A Redempção article argued that flight should no longer be treated as a crime. The claim contested the legal and police framework that made an enslaved person’s self-liberation punishable while...

A Redempção reproduced a resolution by farmers in Serra Negra declaring enslaved people free while requiring them to serve until 24 December 1889, with wages. This was conditional emancipation on...

The newspaper published “O crime da Penha do Rio do Peixe,” reporting the murder of police delegate Joaquim Firmino de Araújo Lima, who had sheltered two people in an emancipation process and joined...