Liberalism and Slavery in 19th Century Brazil: Giving in to Contradiction to Survive

This article deals with the models of liberalism implemented in Brazil in the 19th century and the contradiction of these economic models that coexisted with slavery, contradicting its theoretical principle of wage labor and freedom of negotiation. The liberal economic model advocated by economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo preserves freedom of negotiation and labor as its basic principle. However, as this economic ideal arrived in Brazil, slavery was unashamedly embraced, allowing its existence within the economic model that preached free labor. Even with a reformulation of liberalism by representatives such as Tavares Bastos, slavery was treated as a problematic economic factor in the 19th century Brazilian context.