Under the aegis of the law, amid the force of habit:

police and slavery on the pages of newspapers in Rio de Janeiro (1820-1840)

Abstract

After Brazil's independence, the political environment became promising for a series of institutional transformations linked, above all, to the adequacy of the nascent state to the postulates of political liberalism and constitutional monarchy. In such a scenario, the clashes about changes were placed in the spaces of power in a strict sense, such as the government and parliament, but also through new forms of sociability that had been building since the beginning of the century, driven by the process of political emancipation. The periodic press, in this sense, played a fundamental role. In this article, the aim is to analyze some of the speeches present in the newspapers about the changes intended and implemented with regard to the police, between the 1820s and 1840s, under a specific aspect: the relationship between police institutions and slavery. In this sense, it is necessary to elucidate how the ruptures, permanences and mixtures regarding the police activities were approached and debated in the midst of the political transition process of the eight hundred, especially in what were linked to the slavery system. Furthermore, it is important to demonstrate how much such discussions were linked to the political disputes of the period.