Direito e escravidão: embates acerca da liberdade jurídica de escravos na província do Maranhão (1860-1888)

Abstract

The law is an area of conflict between various social groups. Thus, social changes have affected the course of history in the transformation of the law. Thus, the situation created by the end of the international traffic articulate the everyday struggles of slaves for their freedom and delivered for maintenance, this fight also potentiated in the legal field. Moreover, this work aims to understand the profile of social relations involving slave owners, slaves, freedmen and other social actors in their daily life in the context of deregulation of slavery, and as a locus for analyzing São Luís and Alcântara in the 1860s - 1880. For this, it was necessary to investigate how the Law was organized in the nineteenth century, analyzing the legal practice in the capital of the Province of Maranhão and explore the strategies used by slaves and freedmen to reach their individual projects. Furthermore, this study was documentary contribution freedom suits, actions nullity actions maintenance of freedom, appeals, period newspapers, wills, speeches and reports of provincial presidents, surveys and notices of questions.