Abstract
Based upon deeds involving slaves, we present the efforts of their proprietors to avoid the restrictions on the traffic of human merchandise imposed by the legislation of the second half of the nineteenth century. Likewise we discuss the undeniable impact of this legislation upon this type of business.
The primary documentation utilized consist of notarial records of selected localities within the coffee zone of the Province of São Paulo. The deeds cover transactions at the point of entry in São Paulo of the slaves imported from other provinces.
The negotiation of this merchandise, much in demand by planters, was deeply affected by the Law of the Free Womb (1871) and the Freedom of the Sexagenarians (1885). Other significant legislation placed limitations on the separation of families (1869) and imposed a prohibitive tax on the inter-provincial trade (1880).
We try to illustrate the friction between the institution of slavery and the laws that created obstacles to the flow of the slave trade.