Da independência à Lei Áurea: os principais marcos jurídicos do Estado Escravocrata Brasileiro

This article focuses on the main aspects and legal instruments that legitimized slavery during the Brazilian imperial period, seeking to bring contributions to the social history of labor to outline the normative frameworks on which the exploitation of labor in the country was based and which influence it even today. The methodology used is a literature review and legislation analysis. Despite the illuminist ideas that permeated the Brazilian independence from the Portuguese metropolis, the emancipation of the country did not result in the abolition of black slavery. The Lusitanian traffickers were replaced by Brazilian ones, Portuguese laws and customs were internalized and there was an intensification of trade and exploitation of slave labor so that the country was responsible for imported approximately 46% of the slaves destined for the Americas and was the last in the Occident to abolish trafficking and slavery.