Machado de Assis pensando a Abolição

Abstract

In this work the project for the abolition of slavery and the promulgation of the Golden Law were analyzed from the point of view of the intellectual Machado de Assis. Accused by his interpreters of neglecting in his texts the slaves and their fight for freedom, it was verified that the defense of the abolition of the writer occurred in the plane of literature, through the chronicles of the series "Bons Dias!", Between April and December of 1888, where he strongly criticized the conduct of the abolition project that did not improve the condition of the slave. Basically, the project of abolition benefited more the oligarchy that was articulated in the politics through the Parliament to impose its will and to maintain its privileges. He criticized the abolition made by the state that had nothing to do with his ideas about it (abolition without abolitionism). In this way, it is argued that Machado de Assis had an idea of abolition different from the state in which he defended the assistance and preparation of the slave to be included in society, guaranteeing him a de facto freedom, not only on paper. He emphasized here the role of the writer as a defender of the abolitionist cause without belonging to a specific group of struggle for abolition.