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Slave Mothers and Freed Children: Emancipation and Female Space in Debates on the ‘Free Womb’ Law, Rio de Janeiro, 1871*†

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Martha Abreu
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Abstract

Through an analysis of the debates in 1871 on the Law of the ‘Free Womb’ in the Brazilian Empire, this article tries to understand the role of the slave mother and her freed children in the process of abolition. In addition, it discusses the possible obstacles and dangers the ‘Free Womb’ would present for the perpetuation of slaveowners' dominance.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , October 1996 , pp. 567 - 580
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 Five years had passed since the slave-holding Confederacy had been defeated in the United States. Cuba was in the midst of a war of independence in which the matter of abolition played a crucial role. In Europe, English and French public opinion ran adamantly against the slave-holding polities still in existence.

2 See Conrad, Robert, Os Ultimos Anos da Escravatura no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1978), pp. 112–30;Google ScholarCarvalho, José Murilo de, A Construção da Ordem, A Elite Política Imperial (Rio de Janeiro, 1980), pp. 155–85;Google Scholar and Mattos, Ilmar R., O Tempo Saquarema, A Formação do Estado Imperial (Sao Paulo, 1990), pp. 218–51.Google Scholar

3 Conrad, , Os últimos Anos da Escravatura no Brasil, p. 113.Google Scholar

4 For examples of studies that argue that the results of the free womb law were paltry, see: Conrad, , Os Últimos Anos da Escravatura no Brasil; Emilia Viotti da Costa, Da Senzala à Colônia (São Paulo, 1982);Google ScholarCunha, Manoela Carneiro da, Antropologia do Brasil. Mito, História e Etnicidade (São Paulo, 1986);Google ScholarLage, Lana and Venâncio, Renato Pinto, Abandono de Criaçnas Negras no Rio de Janeiro’, in Priore, Mary del (ed.), História da Criança no Brasil (São Paulo, 1991);Google ScholarMattoso, Katia Q., ‘O Filho da Escrava (em torno da lei do ventre livre)’, Revista Brasileira de História – Escravidão, vol 8, no. 16 (março/agosto 1888).Google Scholar For a different perspective, in which researchers seek to demonstrate conflicts and slave participation in the process of emancipation, see: Chalhoub, Sidney, Visões da Liberdade, uma História das Ultimas Décadas da Escravidão na Corte (São Paulo, 1990);Google ScholarGraham, Sandra L., ‘Slavery's Impasse: Slave Prostitutes, Small-Time Mistresses, and the Brazilian Law of 1871’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, no. 33/4 (October 1991);Google Scholar and Castro, Hebe Maria Mattos de, Das Cores do Silêncio: Os Significados da Liberdade no Sudeste Escravista, Brasil, século XIX (Rio de Janeiro, 1995).Google Scholar

5 Levi, Giovani, ‘Sobre a Micro-história’, in Burke, Peter (ed.), A Escrita da História, Novas Perspectivas (São Paulo, 1992), p. 136.Google Scholar

6 Owing to the constraints on this article, I shall not go into detail concerning the changes in arguments over those four months of debate. Some letters and ‘solicited publications’ bear no signature. Still, since they are clearly in line with the others, they will be included in the corpus of documents to be analysed. Concerning the discourse of the deputies and senators, their national and regional political positions are still being studied.

7 See note 4.

8 Often this central preoccupation appears explicitly, as on 11 July and 19 September. At other times it comes enveloped in irony and hostility, as on 9 June and 9 August.

9 Cunha, , Antropologia do Brasil, pp. 136–37.Google Scholar

10 Slenes, Robert, ‘Lares Negros, Olhares Brancos: Histórias da Família Escrava no Século XIX’, in Revista Brasileira de História – Escravidáo, vol. 8, no. 16 (março/agosto 1888), pp. 189–205.Google Scholar

11 For information on the slave families in the rural southeast in the nineteenth century, see, Slenes, ‘Lares Negros, Olhares Brancos’, Slenes, , ‘Escravidão e Família: Padrões de Casamento e Estabilidade Familiar numa Comunidade Escrava. Campinas, Século XIX’, Estudos Econômicos, vol. 17, no. 2 (1987), pp. 217–27;Google ScholarCastro, , Das Cores do Silêncio, pp. 133–285;Google ScholarGoes, Manolo Florentino e José Roberto, ‘Parentesco e Família entre os Escravos de Vallim’, in Castro, Hebe and Schnoor, Eduardo (eds), Resgate, Uma Janela para o Oitocentos (Rio de Janeiro, 1995), pp. 139–65;Google ScholarFragoso, João Luis R. and Florentino, Manolo, ‘Marcelino, Filho de Inocência Crioula, Neto de Joana Cabinda: Estudo Sobre Famílias Escravas em Paraíba do Sul, 1835–1872’, Estudos Econômicos, vol. 17, no. 2 (1987), pp. 151–73;Google ScholarRios, Ana Maria Lugão, ‘Família e Compadrio entre Escravos nas Fazendas de Café: Paraíba do Sul, 1871–1888’, Estudos sobre escravidão II, no. 23 (agosto 1990);Google ScholarNeves, Maria de Fátima Rodrigues das, ‘Infância de Faces Negras: a Criança Escrava Brasileira no Século XIX’, unpubl. diss., Universidade de São Paulo (USP), 1993;Google ScholarLuna, Francisco, ‘Casamento de Escravos em São Paulo: 1776, 1804, 1829’, in Marcílio, Maria Luiza (ed.), História e População: Estudos sobre a América Latina (1990), pp. 226–37;Google ScholarLibby, Douglas Couly, Transformação e Trabalho em uma Economia Escravista, Minas Gerais no século XIX (São Paulo, 1988), pp. 56–72.Google Scholar

Of course, numerous slave families were separated as a result of the booming slave traffic from the northeast to the southeast in the latter half of the nineteenth century. This does not contradict my main argument. On the contrary, it supports my argument, since slaveowners' concessions in allowing family formation or even granting freedom were selective and tended to benefit those who had remained in the region the longest.

12 See the letter from the Piraí farmers dated 1; June; the petition of the Rio de Janeiro merchants dated 29 June; and other declarations on 29 June; 10, 13, and 14 July; and 25 August.

13 I develop the issue of the relationship between Catholicism and abolition in my article ‘Religious Festivals in Janeiro, Rio de: Perspectives of Control and Tolerance in the Nineteenth Century’, Estudos Históricos, vol. 7, no. 14 (1994), pp. 183–203,Google Scholar and in my doctoral thesis (’O Império do Divino: Festas Religiosas e Cultura Popular no Rio de Janeiro, 1830–1890’, unpubl. PhD diss., Universidade de Campinas (UNICAMP), 1996).Google Scholar

14 According to Perdigão Malheiro, author of a classic 1866 text regarding slave law in Brazil, the only way to be born a slave was to be born to a slave mother. See, Malheiro, Perdigão, A Escravidão no Brasil, Ensaio Histórico, Jurídico, Social, vol. 1 (Rio de Janeiro 1976), p. 56.Google Scholar

15 Another important proponent of the argument that it would break the ‘moral strength of masters’ was Perdigão Malheiro. Malheiro argued for the creation of a fund to finance the gradual emancipation of families and women of child-bearing age. Ironically, this eminent jurist had, in 1866, supported all of the reforms proposed in the 1871 law (See Chalhoub, , Vis˜es da Liberdade, p. 142,Google Scholar and Fábio, Bruno V., O Parlamento e a Evolução Nacional, 1871–1889, vol. 1 (Brasília, 1979), pp. 246–53).Google Scholar

16 Diário, 13 September.

17 Diário, 17 June to 13 September.

18 Diário, 1 August.

19 Diário: 29 June; 9, 19, 21, 30 August; and 8, 13, 15, 19 September.

20 ‘Woman and Mother, Female Citizenship for Free and Slave Women – Rio de Janeiro, XIX Century’, paper presented at the Ninth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Vassar College, 1993. See, ‘Mulher e Mãe – A Cidadania Feminina para Mulheres Livres e Escravas’, Soihet, Rachel (ed.), Arrabaldes, Cadernos de História, vol. 4 (1996). PP. 74–80.Google Scholar

21 All these aspects of family life can be found, in the order I have listed them, in Diário: 13 September, 14 June, 19 August, 6 September, 19 September, 13 and 17 June.

22 Diário, 21 August.

23 Diário, 19 and 15 September.

24 Diário, 28 September.

25 In his attempts to assuage slaveowners' fears, the same senator, revealing an impressive understanding of slave behaviour, cited the example of the English Caribbean colonies to show that ‘freedmen did not run off into the bush’. In fact, many stayed and rented their skills. Or they went out on their own, at their own risk. He said that they were not averse to work. They attempted partnerships with success and cereal crops prospered.

26 Not all the defenders of the project were as understanding of slaveowners. Deputy Torres Homem, in a burst of passion, accused them of being pro-slavery and did not understand why they were not happy with the law, given that it did not ‘place a burden on them and it kept the system working’. Diário, 11 September.

27 According to data cited by Emilia Viotti da Costa, the majority of the children remained with their mothers' owners (see Viotti, , Da Senzala à Colônia, p. 387).Google Scholar For a discussion of public and private educational projects involving the education of ingênuos, see Martinez, A. F., “‘Educar e instruir’: A educação de crianças populares no Rio de Janeiro no final do XIX”, unpubl. Bachelor's thesis, Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), 1994.Google Scholar Some examples are the educational reforms of João Alfredo (1871) and Leôncio de Carvalho (1878); the creation of the Association for the Protection of Abandoned Children (1875), and the iniciative of Visconde de Pimentel, owner of the Boa Vista plantation in Valença, to create a school for ingênuos in 1879.