More than 1,300 stories documented by the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice show enslaved blacks as agents of the struggle for freedom. The files dated before the Lei Áurea, of 1888, were digitized and are now available for consultation online at the Museum of Justice portal.
The period comprises the moments when the city was capital of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Empire of Brazil.
The Permanent Archival Collections Management Service (Segap) team analyzed for 11 months all physical documentation relating to the period of slavery available in the collections “Casa da Suplicação do Brasil” (1808-1833) and the “Relacao do Rio de Janeiro” (1833-1890), the two collections of records made available. In most documents, victims of slavery are registered by their first name only.
It is estimated that more than four million enslaved people were trafficked from Africa to Brazil, which also distributed them to other countries. In Rio de Janeiro alone, the Valongo Wharf, the main gateway, with at least two million people brought from the African continent.
Numbers that make it the largest receiving port for slaves in the world. The city once had 46% of its population made up of enslaved people.
The register of wills in the collection of the “Casa de Supplication do Brasil” reveals the story of 10 victims who got their freedom after the death of the person who exploited them. Adão, Basilio, Custódio, Delphina, Elysa, Faust, Felicio, Peregrino and Veronica were freed in 1886. The court found, however, that this right was often denied to enslaved people, even when the intention was registered in a will by the holder rights over them because they were contested by their children. The decision, however, was based on the Free Womb Law, enacted 15 years earlier.
Under conditions of mistreatment, exploitation, murder and torture, enslaved blacks resisted in different ways. The collection reinforces the historical understanding that the struggle for freedom and dignity took place both through revolts, with escapes and the formation of quilombos, as a means by legal means, in order to assert individual rights.
Head of the Textual and Audiovisual Collection and Historical Research Service (Seata) at TJ/RJ, Gilmar de Almeida Sá reinforces the non-conforming condition of the enslaved and reiterates the importance of adequately contextualizing the feeling.
“Different from what was taught in the old History books, which presented enslaved workers as beings who accepted as definitive their condition of captive, the historical collection of the Judiciary Power proves the protagonism of the enslaved in the struggle for freedom and better living conditions, in a society marked by social stratification, defined in the legal system of the time”, highlights the researcher.
Another story highlighted by the TJ’s collection was that of Joana, in 1855. With a letter of freedom, obtained with compensation of 320 thousand réis, she requested a warrant to maintain her freedom. The documents show that she made the request in order to secure her rights against any threat of being enslaved again.
The documents can be consulted on the TJ/RJ website, at the link: http://www4.tjrj.jus.br/acervo/
*Under supervision of Stéfano Salles
Reference: CNN Brasil
