Only the slaves of "relatives" and "influential owners": indemnity and freedom by the Emancipation Fund (São Francisco do Conde, Bahia, 1871-1888).

Abstract

Between September and October 1885, two women from the village of São Francisco do Conde, from Bahia recôncavo, complained against the freedom process through the Emancipation Fund, third article of the 1871 law. Freedom of sick slaves and overpricing, favoritism to relatives of the government and important local slaveholders, exclusion of slaves from the list without communication to their owners and no judicial process were some of the charges that was made to the authorities. The accused were members of the fiscal support, legal, military and political village elite. In this specific case, the accused were the collector of rents, the public prosecutor and the city council president, all members of the institution that control the Emancipation Fund. Based on these allegations and crossing with other documents, such as inventories, wills, book notes and the relevant literature about the topic, this research project aims to investigate the actions of slaveholders, slaves and their families to use and appropriate the Emancipation Fund. Special attention will be pay to the strategies of the slaveholders to achieve reparations for manumission of their slaves, the most important objective that guide the relationbetween the slaveholders and the public officials responsible for managing the Fund. As for the slaves, the research will seek to understand the different forms of mobilization to achieve freedom. The sources used are from São Francisco do Conde, Bahia. The experience of emancipation in this municipality will be considered in connection with the international process of overcoming slavery.