Slavery and Law Making in Nineteenth Century Brazil

As is widely known, Brazil became independent in 1822 without ending slavery. The fact that slavery persisted throughout the whole 19th century--was finally abolished in 1888-- generated a series of legal conflicts, that not only prevented the enforcement of several laws created in the midst of the formation process of a liberal State, but also made the codification of the international and civil laws very difficult. (Brazil’s first civil code was issued in 1916). The fleeing of slaves occurred mainly after 1840 to countries where slavery had already been abolished, such as Uruguay and Argentina, and the masters' attempts to rescue and re-enslave them, generated a series of trials and discussions about the sources of international law. Should slaves be considered refugees? Should they be extradited? In the same way, in the second half of 19th century, the fact that there were enslaved people working under contracts and receiving wages also complicated the codification of the civil law, given that they were performing activities formally allowed just to free men. Legal experts asked themselves if a slave should be allowed to formally buy another slave, if a slave could have a saving's account in a bank, if he could sign up a contract under his name. The aim of this paper is to explore some of those conflicts, examining the effect that slavery had in the law-making process in 19th century Brazil.