Patterns of Mobility and Racial Miscegenation in Slaveholding Brazil, 19th Century, Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This study analyzes manumission papers and baptismal records of slaves in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro. It argues that slavery in Luso-America was remarkably distinctive from other slave systems in the Americas due to, among other factors, its high manumission rates. They not only encouraged substantial racial miscegenation, but also granted Mulattoes and Blacks access to the slave market, ensuring that participation into the slaveholding order reached out beyond the limits of skin color.