Practising Freedom and Publicness. From Slavery to Citizenship Revisited

Abstract

The acquisition of fundamental rights and the assertion of political participation were two important processes in the transition from slavery to citizenship in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Brazil. Enslaved people played a leading role in both, demanding justice through individual lawsuits and striving for political belonging through collective practices such as capoeira. While the legal struggles, in which they mostly followed the hegemonic language and institutional logic, had an inclusive effect, the political practices led to repressive reactions from the authorities, thus having an exclusionary effect. Nevertheless, to a certain extent these practices also worked in an inclusive manner because they eventually engendered schemes of formal political representation. Even if unconsciously, enslaved (and formerly enslaved) people played a significant role in the Brazilian state-building process.