A dádiva da alforria e o governo dos escravos no Brasil colonial (Campos dos Goitacases, c. 1750 - c. 1830)

Abstract

Analyzing the region of Campos dos Goitacases during the process of establishment and expansion of the sugar activities, I consider that slavery should be understood as an institutional process that produced and reproduced the system when articulating slave trade, slavery situation and manumission.
The social tensions derived from constant introduction of outsiders and the inherent potential conflict between masters and slaves had to be lessened to the point of guaranteeing the stability of the Brazilian slavery system. In that perspective, I consider that the manumission should be understood as a moral gift, once it established a series of reciprocal obligations between freed slaves and masters and because the second conserved rights over the first. In spite of the slave’s participation in the establishment of the terms of the agreement that led to the manumission, the moral prerogative of granting or not the freedom was reserved to the masters. It was therefore a master’s concession.