A freedom register records 56 manumissions tied to future service

The January 20 issue continued to identify local figures involved in recapture and defended its abolitionist orientation. In a society where enslavers and their agents used law, police, and private...

An article in “Propaganda abolicionista” called for ending slavery and connected the demand to the possibility of Paulista separation. The juxtaposition shows the political range of abolitionist...

A “Crônica Negra” account described severe working conditions and bodily violence, including iron restraints and punishment. Such reporting challenged narratives of benevolent mastery and brought...

In “O Africano é livre,” A Redempção advanced a legal argument based on the 1831 prohibition of the transatlantic slave trade to challenge the enslavement of Africans. Abolitionists used the law’s...

A March “Crônica Negra” described people forced to work on Sundays and subjected to iron restraints, hunger, and punishment in Campinas. Reporting such conditions confronted the claim that enslavers...

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...