The article examines the files of a criminal lawsuit that was carried out in the village of Nova Friburgo, province of Rio de Janeiro, in 1850. The defendants were slaves in the farm that belonged to the commendatary Boaventura Ferreira Maciel, the Fazenda Ponte das Tábuas. They were accused of killing the farm´s blacksmith, in the dark and rainy night of February the 13th, in that year. In the files there are interesting testimonies regarding the lives of slaves in the Southeast of Brazil in the middle 19th century.
slavery; Rio de Janeiro; criminal lawsuit; justice; Empire of Brazil.