THE RIGHT OF SLAVERY AND PROPERTY: The Policy of Dominion in the Empire of Brazil (1822-1889).
THE RIGHT OF SLAVERY AND PROPERTY: The Policy of Dominion in the Empire of Brazil (1822-1889).
This dissertation examines the legislation and legal processes of the Brazilian Empire (1822-1889), which seek to express behavior between masters and slaves in a political-legal and social context. Firstly, the legal text of the Philippine Ordinances will be analyzed, a legal source that remained in force until 1916 in Brazil. In this text, the way in which enslaved Africans were treated will be evaluated along with the issue of the use of property and its social function that was formed during modernity; This will allow us to better understand the legal relationships that operate in society during the 19th century. Secondly, the Constitution of the Empire of Brazil of 1824, granted by D. Pedro I, will be analyzed, in which it opened disputes over pro-perty and slavery during the creation of independent Brazil. In this text, the idea of property rights in absolute and, paradoxically, limited value was established, as well as the concealment of the existence of slaves. Using the perspective of other sources (Laws and Decrees) will allow us to identify the explicit mention of enslaved people as well as rights acquired throughout the Empire. Finally, the set of civil and criminal cases will be evaluated to identify the actions and resistance of slaves (1824- 1889), found in the National Archives and in secondary sources, where it will be possible to locate legal understandings about the idea of using property with or without social function and the way this impacted the preservation of slavery until 1888. In this way, it will be possible to capture the meaning of the uses of the terms property and slavery in the context of the Brazilian Empire. Proposing to contribute to current studies, the research aims to re-read the idea of slave-thing and reveal a more complex layer in the relationships between masters, slaves, society and the State.