Slavery and access to land in Luís Antônio de Oliveira Mendes’ views (1792-1821)

Abstract

This article explores Luís Antônio de Oliveira Mendes’ ideas about themes related to slavery and the land ownership regime at the turn of the 19th century: the control of the cruelty of slaveholders; the condemnation of perpetual slavery; and the distribution of unoccupied land to freed and other dispossessed people. In understanding Oliveira Mendes’ ideas, it is necessary to comprehend and historically locate his family origin and of the intellectual formation of Oliveira Mendes, which included the University of Coimbra and the Royal Academy of Sciences in Lisbon.