Nem arrancada, nem outorgada

agência, estrutura e os porquês da Lei do Ventre Livre

Abstract

The article intends to evaluate to which extend the enactment of the
Brazilian Free Womb Law, in the 28th September 1871, derives from the
emancipation granted to slaves in order to fight the Paraguayan War
(1864-1870). A contrast has been established, on the one hand, between
the historiographical literature that understands the emancipationist law
as a reform-mongering tactic– and, therefore, as a government grant –
adopted to avoid possible political disputes; and, on the other hand, the
analytical views that perceive the 1871 law as a result of the agency of
slaves, understood as rebellious contagion within the slave social layers.
While a structural type of analysis underpins the first point of view, the
second is embedded within the concept of individual agency in order to
understand structural changes. Considering both perspectives, the article
argues that reformist anticipations are not disconnected from possibilities
of political agency: structural changes, thereafter, derive from expectations
constituted when chances of social reversion are at stake.