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ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: SLAVE LEGACIES, AMBIVALENT ...

ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: SLAVE LEGACIES, AMBIVALENT ...

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evolt 21 , they still confronted an intensifying regime <strong>of</strong> surveillance undergirded<br />

by the Criminal Code <strong>of</strong> 1830 and the municipal laws, or Posturas da Câmara<br />

Municipal, passed by the town council in 1838, 1854, 1860 and 1870. Given the<br />

absence <strong>of</strong> private supervision that governed plantation slavery, the State took on<br />

the role <strong>of</strong> policing urban slaves and repressing potential slave resistance. The<br />

Criminal Code <strong>of</strong> 1830 set the legal foundation for State administration <strong>of</strong> slave<br />

and free workers and municipal laws contextualized the manner in which such<br />

administration <strong>of</strong> the labor force would be carried out in the city <strong>of</strong> Rio. For<br />

example, responding to the increasing number <strong>of</strong> enslaved workers on Rio‟s<br />

street, the municipal government introduced in 1838 a new law to the existing<br />

legal code <strong>of</strong> 1830. <strong>Title</strong> 7 <strong>of</strong> the 1838 code, “regarding the fraudulent behavior<br />

<strong>of</strong> vagrants, beggars, lotteries, slaves, and ganhadores,” attempted to control<br />

street behavior considered vagrancy, requiring that all slave and free ganhadores<br />

attain licenses from the imperial municipality and limiting the hours they were<br />

allowed to work on the street. Fines or imprisonment up to eight days, when<br />

unable to pay the fine, was the usual punishment. 22<br />

The municipal posturas <strong>of</strong> 1838, 1854, 1860, and 1870 reflected little<br />

change toward slave and free ganhadores, fines and time spent in prison being the<br />

variables that changed overtime. A main concern <strong>of</strong> the 1838 legal code was to<br />

regulate movement, behavior, and commerce on Rio‟s streets. 23 For instance,<br />

21 Leila Mezan Algranti, O feitor ausente: estudo sobre a escravidão urbana no Rio de Janeiro<br />

(Petrópolis: Editora Vozes, 1988). As opposed to Salvador da Bahia, where African Muslim<br />

slaves rebelled against the State in 1835, Algranti argues that the absence <strong>of</strong> slave revolts in Rio<br />

was largely because <strong>of</strong> the greater opportunities slaves had to purchase their freedom.<br />

22 Côdigo de Posturas, Ilustríssima Câmara Municipal (Rio de Janeiro: Emp. Typ. Douze de<br />

Dezembro. Dep. Brito. Impressor da Casa Imperial, 1838).<br />

23 Posturas da Câmara Municipal do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro: Typ. Imp. e Nac., 1839).<br />

38

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