Do Massangana à abolição: a retórica humanista de Joaquim Nabuco

Abstract

This text studies part of the life and work of Joaquim Nabuco, his views about the role of law, especially on the matter of slavery, and it also demonstrates his influence in the struggle for abolition and his contribution to the history of legal ideas in Brazil. This article adopts rhetoric as a methodological approach and distinguishes itself from the traditional historiography. It presents the stories that have reached us about the historical context and the biography of Joaquim Nabuco, relating them to the arguments in Nabuco’s texts in order to impose his ideas and to influence the historical environment, and also their contributions to the current historical moment