Through a fragment of the history of a Portuguese immigrant settled in the south-central coffee region in the nineteenth century, this article intends to recover aspects of experiences of workers who were legally free in that context. It is intended here to demonstrate the coercive elements present in these labor relations, the role of the state in restricting worker autonomy, and the contradictions and conflicts present in the process conventionally called "the transition from slave labor to free labor".
immigration; transition slave labor; free labor