Guardianship, Probation, and Supervised Release in Fortaleza – CE”

“Childhood Experiences in the World of Work in the Post-Abolition Era”

Abstract

This article analyzes the increase in guardianship terms and “soldada” contracts in Fortaleza at the end of the 19th century, framing them within the broader transition from slave labor to free labor in Brazil. It is based on the hypothesis that these mechanisms served as tools of social control, particularly targeting poor and racialized children, in a context marked by the abolition of slavery, severe drought, and the rise in the number of orphans and “ingênuos” (children of enslaved mothers born after the Free Womb Law). Through documentary analysis, institutional strategies are identified that sought to remove children and adolescents from the streets by binding them to domestic or rural labor, legitimized by legal instruments such as responsibility terms and “soldada” contracts. The latter, in particular, reveal elements of coercion and discipline by establishing obligations for employers and permitting child labor in exchange for symbolic compensation. Between 1883 and 1888, 97 contracts involving 105 minors — orphans, freed, and “ingênuos” — were registered, often placing them under the care of former slaveowners or families seeking to exploit their labor. The analysis suggests that these practices were not driven by humanitarian concerns, but rather by the imperative to reorganize control over children’s bodies in the new regime of free labor, thus extending the logic of exploitation characteristic of the slavery period.