Abstract
This paper examines the legal institute of prescription as a mean to end slavery in Brazil in the nineteenth century. The research focused on "opressed freedom" lawsuits through which a person who was considered free could be enslaved or re-enslaved. To that end, a thorough look was directed at the argument of prescriptive extinction of captivity in the appeals stored at the Fundo de Relação do Rio de Janeiro, of the Brazilian National Archive. In addition, a survey has been conducted of the contemporary law, sentences and individual votes available at books and journals of the time. The main foundations of the judicial logic, as well as the motivation of both sides, plaintiffs or enslaved defendants, were carefully scrutinized. The interpretation was based on the vocabulary employed by the contending sides when framing their arguments on the object of the legal action. The goal was to bring to light the links between freedom and slavery in the judicial proceedings involving slaves, particularly the new meanings attributed to old body of law known as hermeneutic rule.
Brazil Empire; Slavery, Justice; History of Law; Slavery Prescription