ABSTRACT
This article analyses the effects of the interprovincial slave trade (domestic slave trade) on the social transformations leading to the abolition of slavery in Brazil. It focuses on the case of Martinho, an enslaved man of the sugarcane plantations of Alagoas, Northeast Brazil. Sold to Rio de Janeiro in 1873, he was then returned to the northeastern province a few months later. Here we engage with the available historiography to discuss the effects of the great migration of slave labor in the context of the selling and the buying regions during the second half of the 19th century. We explore the slaveholders’ strategy to sell their rebellious slaves, and its effects on slave communities. The experiences of men and women enduring forced migration broadened the knowledge about the country’s social reality and facilitated the exchange of information among the subaltern groups.
Keywords:
interprovincial slave trade; social history; nineteenth century