A Lei do Ventre Livre: interesses e disputas em torno do projeto de “abolição gradual”
Christiane Laidler
O presente artigo pretende analisar o processo de negociações políticas em torno do projeto de abolição gradual da escravidão no Brasil. A Lei do Ventre Livre, aprovada após uma intensa batalha parlamentar, foi considerada pelo movimento abolicionista uma farsa que objetivou apenas garantir uma sobrevida maior ao regime escravista. Esse discurso de desqualificação se enraizou profundamente na memória da sociedade e foi traduzido de maneira abrangente pela historiografia. Refazer o percurso da construção política que resultou na Lei de 1871 tem o objetivo de promover uma revisão sobre o seu significado no conjunto do processo de desconstrução do regime de escravidão no Brasil. Palavras-chave: Lei do Ventre Livre; abolição da escravidão. This paper intends to analyze the process of political negotiations for the gradual abolition of slavery in Brazil. Abolitionists considered the Law of the Free Womb a farce. Approved after an intense parliamentary battle, they felt its only purpose was to guarantee the survival of slavery. This argument that discredited Resumos 325 the Law became deeply rooted in the social memory of Brazil and was heartily adopted by historians. By reconstructing the path of political negotiations leading to the Law of 1871, this essay attempts to revise its meaning in the process of dismantling the system of slavery in Brazil. Keywords: Law of the Free Womb; abolition of slavery.
Palavras-chave: público; gosto literário; Gabinete Português de Leitura; emigrantes portugueses; classe caixeiral.
This article is a schematic and partial exposure of some research results on the constitutive elements for the study of the literary public in Brazil, during the realm of Pedro II. The research had as a starting sociological problem the fact that, despite the frailty of the cultural life – characterized, for instance, by high levels of illiteracy and the lack of media and broadcasting –, private experiences developed specific forms of sociability which gave rise to the formation of literary consumers. Hence, a literary public was constituted in private spaces, out of the ruling circles of the Empire where the conditions for its formation would be more favorable. This article specifically focuses on the public of the Gabinete Português de Leitura in Rio de Janeiro, from 1861 to 1870.
Keywords: public; literary taste; Gabinete Português de Leitura; Portuguese emigrants; classe caixeral [sales people].
