Sem rei e sem escravos: o republicanismo e as linguagens políticas do abolicionismo no Brasil

Abstract

This study analyzes the different languages of abolitionism in Brazil, seeking to integrate its history into the recent debates in the history of philosophy and political thought that brought back to surface the contributions of a republican tradition in the composition of modernity. Our first objective is to offer a narrative that, based upon the historicity of our major political languages, is capable of comprehend how the abolition of slavery, and also the crisis of Brazilian empire, were perceived and disputed by perspectives whose diversity were not yet sufficiently analyzed. These political languages have developed different ideas about how abolitionism was attached to the political and social realms. Our second objective is to comprehend the history of Brazilian political thought in the late nineteenth century as in a broader narrative of the legacies that it may carry – specially the its integration to both republican and liberal traditions, as well as their abolitionist expressions. We intend, therefore, to contribute to the understanding of the various layers of disputes and tensions that took place as abolitionism emerged in Brazil.