"Worthy of Freedom": Abolitionist Discourse on Slavery, Freedom, and Imprisonment in Late Nineteenth-Century Brazil

This article originates from research on the discourse of the abolitionist movement in late nineteenth-century Brazil, which analyzed abolitionism as a formative ground for race-making in the postemancipation period. The study examines abolitionists' views on routine imprisonment as a solution to the problem of vagrancy and a means of policing the poor in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro, then the Brazilian capital. I focus on the news coverage of the 1883 prison riot at Rio de Janeiro's Casa de Detenção, a remand prison that held both slaves and free prisoners since its inauguration in 1856. Analyzing the social composition of the inmate population at the Casa de Detenção, the research demonstrates how the prison served as an intensified microcosm of societal dynamics and became a crucial site through which abolitionists made their arguments—even with some unfortunate consequences—about slavery and freedom.