Litígio e Liberdade: Práticas jurídicas de emancipação na fronteira oeste do Império do Brasil no século XIX

Abstract

This Thesis deals with the study of legal liberation practices that were used on the western border of Brazil, during the second half of the 19th century, by the enslaved, to achieve emancipation from their enslavers, a different way of demonstrating the peculiarities of the west border of Brazil as the result of the integration policy of that region to the Empire. Understanding, more broadly, modern slavery as a globally combated institution, mainly after the prohibitions of the slave trade in the legal field, when the policy of the Modern State is turned towards the maintenance of the enslaved bodies for work. We highlight the performance of the National State and its normative legal institutes in an attempt to perpetuate the status quo. An analysis of social, personal, economic and legal relations that was established by the captives and their masters, to survive in the universe of transitions. Reality assimilated by the sinuosities witnessed through the examination of legal manumission instruments and their historical contents, taking advantage of the reports present in documents from notaries, forums, police stations and courts, when these resulted from judicial demands or agreements, such as co-contributions, employment contracts, freedom scriptures and etc. We show the interaction between social formations and the legal field, analyzing it in a broad way, with emphasis on the asymmetric power relations in each case, with the conviction that the legal arena is not neutral, but the demands were not previously determined. The judicial acts were analyzed based on the action of the State, when provoked to pacify divergent interests, in the superstructural field, avoiding direct confrontation between the parties. We presented Brazilian liberalism at a time that reflected, mainly, the interests and the mode of operation of agro-export groups, which were dominant in national politics, starting from independence, claiming the tutelage of the National State and the maintenance of slavery.