13 May 1888

Abolition: the Golden Law of 1888

After decades of pressure, flight and protest, Princess Isabel signs a two-line law ending slavery, making Brazil the last country in the Americas to abolish it, with no land, schooling or compensation for the freed.

The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850–1888 — Robert Conrad, University of California Press (1972)
Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
Slavery in Brazil — Herbert S. Klein and Francisco Vidal Luna, Cambridge University Press (2010)
O Abolicionismo — Joaquim Nabuco, Abraham Kingdon (London) (1883)
A Concise History of Brazil — Boris Fausto and Sergio Fausto, Cambridge University Press (2014)
Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil — Edward E. Telles, Princeton University Press (2004)

Well established slaveryracesocialchangememory

By the mid-nineteenth century, Brazil was an outlier. Britain had abolished slavery in its colonies in the 1830s, and the United States ended it after its civil war in 1865. Brazil still had about 1.5 million enslaved people in 1872, and its coffee boom in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo depended on them.

The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850–1888 — Robert Conrad, University of California Press (1972)
Slavery in Brazil — Herbert S. Klein and Francisco Vidal Luna, Cambridge University Press (2010)

A slow, grudging end

The first blow came from outside. Under heavy British pressure, including Royal Navy raids on slave ships in Brazilian waters, the Eusébio de Queirós Law of 1850 finally ended the Atlantic trade. Without new arrivals from Africa, the enslaved population began to shrink, and planters bought people from the declining northeast to work the coffee south.

The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850–1888 — Robert Conrad, University of California Press (1972)
A Concise History of Brazil — Boris Fausto and Sergio Fausto, Cambridge University Press (2014)

Then came gradual laws designed to end slavery slowly enough to protect owners. The Free Womb Law of 1871 declared children born to enslaved mothers free, though owners could keep their labour until age 21. The Sexagenarian Law of 1885 freed slaves over sixty, few of whom lived that long.

The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850–1888 — Robert Conrad, University of California Press (1972)
Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)

The movement

In the 1880s abolitionism became Brazil’s first great mass movement. The diplomat and writer Joaquim Nabuco published O Abolicionismo in 1883, warning that slavery would long remain “the national characteristic of Brazil”. Black intellectuals were at its heart: Luís Gama, born free in Salvador and sold into slavery by his own father, taught himself law and won freedom in the courts for hundreds of people; the engineer André Rebouças and the journalist José do Patrocínio campaigned tirelessly.

O Abolicionismo — Joaquim Nabuco, Abraham Kingdon (London) (1883)
The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850–1888 — Robert Conrad, University of California Press (1972)
Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)

Ceará and Amazonas declared slavery ended in their provinces in 1884. Most decisively, from 1886 enslaved people in São Paulo began walking off the plantations en masse, helped by abolitionist networks, and the army increasingly refused to hunt them down.

The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850–1888 — Robert Conrad, University of California Press (1972)
A Concise History of Brazil — Boris Fausto and Sergio Fausto, Cambridge University Press (2014)

The Golden Law

With the system collapsing, the government gave way. On 13 May 1888, Princess Isabel, regent while her father Pedro II was abroad, signed the Lei Áurea (Golden Law). Its main article was a single sentence: slavery was declared extinct in Brazil. Crowds celebrated in Rio for days.

Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850–1888 — Robert Conrad, University of California Press (1972)

And then nothing

The law offered no land, no schools and no compensation to the roughly 700,000 people who were still enslaved, and no compensation to owners either, which angered planters enough that many abandoned the monarchy; the empire fell eighteen months later. Instead of hiring freed people, the São Paulo elite subsidised European immigrants, partly out of an explicit wish to “whiten” the population. Many freed people drifted to the edges of the cities, onto hillsides that would become favelas.

Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil — Edward E. Telles, Princeton University Press (2004)
A Concise History of Brazil — Boris Fausto and Sergio Fausto, Cambridge University Press (2014)

Brazilian historians often say that abolition was the end of slavery but not the beginning of citizenship. The gap it left, in land, education and dignity, is what Black Brazilian activists mean when they speak of an “unfinished abolition”.

Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil — Edward E. Telles, Princeton University Press (2004)
Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)

How it's seen

The old official memory

Abolition was a generous act from above. Princess Isabel was celebrated as "the Redeemer", and 13 May was once a festive date in the school calendar.

Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)

Black movement and most historians today

Slavery was ended by the enslaved themselves, through mass flight from the plantations, by Black abolitionists such as Luís Gama, André Rebouças and José do Patrocínio, and by popular protest. The law ratified a collapse already under way and then abandoned the freed people. Many activists call 13 May a day of reflection, not celebration.

The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850–1888 — Robert Conrad, University of California Press (1972)
Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
Slavery in Brazil — Herbert S. Klein and Francisco Vidal Luna, Cambridge University Press (2010)

Why it matters today

Brazil

Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to end slavery, and many Brazilians see the "abolition without a plan" as the root of the favelas, of racial inequality and of the police violence that falls hardest on Black Brazilians. How to remember 13 May is itself a debate.