In 1992, there was republished by Paulo Suess "Etíope resgatado", written by Father Manuel Ribeiro Rocha. It was very rare work, because, as stated, there was a single copy in the National Library of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. I had, at this point, already started a research about the Father Ribeiro Rocha, whom used to be described as "a pioneer of abolitionism" in Brazil. With the reissue of "Etíope resgatado", I took notice about Paulo Suess lecture, in an almost completely opposite direction. According to Suess, Ribeiro Rocha was nothing more than a simple "reformer" who had added nothing to the problem of libertarian idea of black slavery. Incidentally, this was the thesis Vainfas Ronaldo and Jose Honorio Rodrigues argued, who saw the work of Ribeiro Rocha another copy of "slavery thought" which only condemned, as did all the men of the Church, the excesses and atrocities of black slavery. This work is orientate, therefore, toward an "abolitionist" reading of "Etíope resgatado", although it admits the clear evidence of "concessions" made by Ribeiro Rocha to the slave situation of his time.
Etíope resgatado; Ribeiro Rocha; slavery; church