Abstract
This paper reviews the factors that led to the drafting, partial transformation into an ordinance, and the final rejection of the first bill regulating Portuguese emigration to Brazil by Sá da Bandeira. The research begins in 1835 with the emergence of the expression ‘white slave traffic’; and finishes in 1843 with the rejection of the draft bill in Parliament. This work contextualizes the interpretation of emigration by Bandeira and other state agents within Brazil’s transition from slavery to free labor. Such an approach raises questions about the thesis that sees the concern with white slavery as rhetoric to legitimate the adoption of restrictive measures on freedom to emigrate. Highlighting the disputes within the state around the draft bill, this paper shows how emigration became a concept whose multiplicity of experiences prevented a consensus about which policy to follow.
Keywords
Portugal; emigration; white slavery