As cartas de alforria da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro: diversidades e peculiaridades nas relações de poder senhorial nas primeiras décadas do século XIX

Abstract

This dissertation has the aim to describe, discuss and compare letters of manumission, identifying their peculiarities and diversities in relation to the slaves' owners authority. The manumissions emerge as a kind of agreement, which the master, in a determined time, judges convenient to manumit to a specific slave. An agreement is established between two parties, so we evince the active slave participation in the process. Although it was required obedience and submission, they knew how to negotiate with their owners on the limitations imposed by the slavery system, acquiring freedom according to the law. The letter of manumission conceded a legal freedom to the slaves. It was the legitimated freedom by society, the same society that legitimated the slavery system. The letter of manumission contains both data from manumitter and manumitted. Therefore, when we raised the motivations that explained the manumissions, it was possible to clear this complex scheme that determinated the relations between master and slave.