Description
Policing Freedom provides a critical analysis of nineteenth-century Brazil’s contradictory approach to slavery, freedom, and citizenship. Martine Jean investigates how Brazilian legal systems and police institutions functioned to maintain racial hierarchies and labor control even as slavery faced increasing pressure and eventual abolition.
The book examines the intersection of law enforcement, labor regulation, and citizenship rights, revealing how ostensibly progressive legal reforms paradoxically strengthened mechanisms of racial control. Through detailed historical research, Jean demonstrates how policing practices targeted free and formerly enslaved Africans and Afro-Brazilians, effectively restricting their freedom and economic opportunities.
This work contributes significantly to Afro-Latin American studies by showing how formal legal changes did not necessarily translate into genuine freedom or equality. It offers valuable insights into the continuities between slavery and freedom in the nineteenth century.
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