Civilization, Rights, and Tears: Antislavery Rhetoric in the Brazilian Abolitionist Press

This paper focuses on the Brazilian abolitionist press in the 1880s (particularly the newspapers A Redempção, Cidade do Rio, O Abolicionista, and the Gazeta da Tarde). It has two purposes. First, it seeks to demonstrate that, although there were differences among these newspapers due to their editors’ political positions, the abolitionist press shared a common anti-slavery rhetoric based around three tropes: law, compassion, and progress. Second, it argues that this rhetoric was created out of a selective incorporation of foreign abolitionist rhetoric and in conflict with Brazilian pro-slavery rhetoric.