The Rio Branco law (), also known as the Law of Free Birth (), named after its champion, prime minister
José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco
José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco (16 March 1819 – 1 November 1880), was a Brazilian politician, monarchist, diplomat, teacher and journalist. Rio Branco was born in Salvador, in what was then the Captaincy of Bah ...
, was passed by the
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...
of the
Empire of Brazil
The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and Uruguay until the latter achieved independence in 1828. The empire's government was a Representative democracy, representative Par ...
on 28 September 1871. It was intended to grant freedom to all newborn children of slaves, and slaves of the state or crown. However, children of enslaved women in Brazil were obligated to serve their mother's owners until the age of 21, a condition that was often more or less that of slavery.
The law did not define the exact legal status of enslaved women's wombs; this was negotiated by enslaved people afterwards, with women at the forefront.
The law was the beginning of an
abolition movement in Brazil, but it turned out to be more of a legal
loophole
A loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in a system, such as a law or security, which can be used to circumvent or otherwise avoid the purpose, implied or explicitly stated, of the system.
Originally, the word meant an arrowslit, a narrow vertic ...
than a radical measure that led to viable progress. Only a few people were freed under the law, while more than one million people continued to be held as slaves throughout Brazil. This law had more of an influence in the northern part of the country, which was leaning further toward
wage
A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work (human activity), work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include wiktionary:compensatory, compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailin ...
rather than slave labor.
Many of those freed under the Rio Branco law migrated to the north to work for wages on the
plantation
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
s. The Rio Branco law was the first step toward abolition of
slavery in Brazil
Slavery in Brazil began long before the Colonial Brazil, first Portuguese settlement. Later, colonists were heavily dependent on indigenous labor during the initial phases of settlement to maintain the subsistence economy, and natives were of ...
. It was ultimately abolished on 13 May 1888 with the adoption of the .
See also
*
Freedom of wombs
Free womb laws (, ), also referred to as free birth or the law of wombs, was a 19th century judicial concept in several Latin American countries, that declared that all wombs bore free children. All children are born free, even if the mother is en ...
*''
Partus sequitur ventrem
''Partus sequitur ventrem'' (; also ''partus'') was a legal doctrine passed in colonial Virginia in 1662 and other English crown colonies in the Americas which defined the legal status of children born there; the doctrine mandated that children ...
''
*
Slave Trade Act
Slave Trade Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States that relates to the slave trade.
The "See also" section lists other Slave Acts, laws, and international conventions which developed the conce ...
s
*
Post-abolition in Brazil
Post-abolition is the period of History of Brazil, Brazilian history immediately following the Abolitionism in Brazil, abolition of slavery in 1888. Defined as a major break in the system practiced until then, the period triggered significant cha ...
*
Saraiva-Cotegipe Law
References
1871 in law
Legal history of Brazil
1871 in Brazil
Slavery in Brazil
Abolitionism in Brazil
Slavery legislation
19th century in slavery
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pt:Abolicionismo no Brasil#Lei do Ventre Livre