"A mãe pantera está na jaula" - Crimes de infanticídio e filicídio nos limiares da abolição

Abstract

This paper’s main goal is to analyze crimes of infanticide and filicide perpetrated by enslaved women in the last decades before the abolition of slavery in Brazil, in 1888. The cases were found in provincial reports and periodicals of the three major slaver provinces of the Empire: Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. By investigating, specially, the crimes committed against children born after the Free Womb Law, from 1871, the goal is to try to comprehend the context under which the crimes took place, considering the fights for freedom and acts of resistance from the enslaved women. Furthermore, it intends to analyze the issue of enslaved maternity, that encompasses the studied cases, in three different locations: Brazil, the United States of America and Nueva Granada.