A Law of the Free Womb was enacted on September 28, 1871, and was also known as Rio Branco Law. This law was drafted by the office of Visconde do Rio Branco, and was the result of extensive discussion in parliament.
The law was approved in the chamber with 65 votes in favor and 45 against. And there was how goal determine that the children of enslaved women born after that date were free.
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Law of the Womb in full
LAW No. 2040 of 09.28.1871 - FREE WOMB LAW
The Imperial Princess Regent, in the name of S. M. the Emperor and Mr. d. Pedro II, informs all citizens of the Empire that the General Assembly has decreed and sanctioned the following law:
Art. 1.º – The children of a slave woman who are born in the Empire from the date of this law will be considered free.
§ 1.º – The said minor children will be in the power or under the authority of their mothers' lords, who will have the obligation to raise and treat them until the age of eight complete years. When the slave's son reaches this age, the mother's master will have the option of either receiving an indemnity of 600$000 from the State, or of using the child's services up to the age of 21. In the first case, the Government will receive the minor and give him/her a destination, in accordance with the present law.
§ 6.º – The provision of services to the children of slaves ceases before the period established in § 1°. if, by sentence of the criminal court, it is recognized that the lords of the mothers mistreat them, inflicting excessive punishments on them.
Art. 2nd – The government may hand over to associations, authorized by it, the children of female slaves, born from the date of this law, which are ceded or abandoned by their masters, or removed from their power by virtue of the Art. 1.º- § 6º.
§ 1 – The said associations will be entitled to free services for minors up to the age of 21, and will be able to rent these services, but will be obliged to:
1.º To raise and treat the same minors;
2.º To set up an annuity for each of them, consisting of the quota reserved for this purpose in the respective statutes;-
3.º To look for them, after the period of service, appropriate placement.
§ 2.º – The provision of this article is applicable to the Houses of the Exposed, and to the persons to whom the judges of orphans charge with the education of said minors, in the absence of associations or establishments created for this purpose.
§ 4.º – The Government has the right to order the referred minors to be collected from establishments public, transferring in this case to the State the obligations that § 1.º imposes on associations authorized.
Art. 3rd – As many slaves will be freed annually in each province of the Empire as correspond to the annually available quota of the fund destined for emancipation…
Art. 4.º – The slave is allowed to form an annuity with what he receives from donations, legacies and inheritances, and with what, by consent of the master, he obtains from his work and savings. The government will provide for the regulations on the placement and security of the same annuity.
§ 1.º – Upon death of the slave, half of his annuity will belong to the surviving spouse, if any, and the other half will be transmitted to his heirs, in the form of civil law. In the absence of heirs, the annuity will be awarded to the emancipation fund, referred to in art. 3.º…
§ 4.º – The slave who belongs to co-owners and is freed by one of them, will have the right to be manumitted, indemnifying the other masters of the share of the value that belongs to them. This indemnity may be paid with services provided for a period not exceeding seven years…
§ 7.º – In any case of alienation or transmission of slaves, it is prohibited, under penalty of nullity, to separate the spouses and children under twelve years of age from the father or mother.
§ 8.º - If the division of assets between heirs or partners does not involve the reunion of a family, and none of them prefers to keep it under its domain, upon replacement of the quota, or part of the other interested parties, will be the same family sold and its product prorated…
Art. 6.º – Will be declared freed:
§ 1.º – Slaves belonging to the nation, the government giving them the occupation it deems convenient.
§ 2.º – Slaves given in usufruct to the Crown.
§ 3.º – Slaves of vacant inheritances.
§ 4.º – Slaves abandoned by their masters. If they abandon them because they are invalids, they will be obliged to feed them, except in the case of shortages, food being taxed by the judge for orphans.
§ 5.º – In general, slaves freed under this law remain under the inspection of the government for 5 years. They are obliged to hire their services under pain of being constrained, if they live idle, to work in public establishments. However, the constraint of work will cease whenever the freedman requires a service contract.
Art. 8.º – The Government will order the special registration of all slaves existing in the Empire, with a declaration of the name, gender, status, aptitude for work and filiation of each one, if known.
§ 1.º – The period in which the registration must begin and end will be announced as far in advance as possible through repeated public notices, in which the provision of the following paragraph will be inserted.
§ 2.º – The slaves that, due to the fault or omission of the interested parties, are not given to the enrollment, up to one year after the closing of this one, will be considered freed by this fact.
§ 4.º – The children of the slave woman, who by this law are free, will also be registered in a separate book. Gentlemen omitted, due to negligence, will incur a fine of 100$000 to 200$000, repeated as many times as there are omitted individuals, and for fraud in the ari's penalties. 179 of the criminal code.
§ 5.º – Parish priests will be obliged to have special books for registering the births and deaths of children of female slaves, born from the date of this law. Each omission will subject parish priests to a fine of 100$000.
Art. 9.º – The Government, in its regulations, may impose fines of up to 100$000 and simple prison sentences of up to one month.
Art. 10 - Any provisions to the contrary are hereby revoked. It orders, therefore, all the authorities to whom the knowledge and execution of the said law belong, to comply with it and enforce it and keep it as fully as it contains. The Secretary of State for Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works has it printed, published and run.
Given at the Palace of Rio de Janeiro, on September 28, 1871, the 50th anniversary of Independence and the Empire
Imperial Princess Regent – Teodoro Machado Freire Pereira da Silva.
abolitionist law
abolitionist laws are how we know the laws that promoted the emancipation of slaves. They were approved gradually, the first being the Eusébio de Queiroz Law, and the last the Golden Law.
The abolitionist laws passed in Brazil were:
- Eusébio de Queiroz Law (1850);
- Law of the Free Womb (1871);
- Sexagenarian Law (1885);
- Golden Law (1888).
slavery in Brazil
The second half of the 19th century in Brazil was marked by social tensions, especially with regard to labor relations.
England began to pressure the Brazilian imperial government to take measures regarding slavery. It was close to the second half of the century that the Bill Alberdeen Act (1845) was created in England, which prohibited the slave trade between Africa and America and authorized the English to seize slave ships intercontinental.
England's concern, however, was to know that the price of products produced from slave labor was cheaper, and this could make the Brazilian colony a new competitor in the Marketplace.
With the creation of the Bill Alberdeen Law, five years later the Eusébio de Queiroz Law was approved in Brazil, which prohibited the slave trade. This law, however, was only actually enforced with the enactment of the Nabuco de Araújo Law, in 1854.
The Free Womb Law, in turn, was enacted in 1871, and in a different way from the Eusébio de Queiroz Law, threatened to end slavery in Brazil.
If the slave trade was prohibited, and children born to slave mothers after that date were considered free, then the end of slave labor was closer than ever before. before.
Despite having few effects, the Lei do Ventre Livre is an event that symbolizes the concerns of the period in relation to the slave system, in its final moments.
The following decade, the 1880s, was marked by being one of the most emblematic in terms of the fight against slavery, and the strength of the abolitionist movement was increasingly present in society. Furthermore, it is the decade in which the Lei Áurea is enacted.
Related content:
- Films to Reflect on Slavery
- Colonial Brazil – Summary, revolts, economic activities and slavery
- Slavery in Brazil