Lei dos Sexagenários
With the Lei dos Sexagenários ( Portuguese for law of sixty-year-olds ) in Brazil in 1885 slaves over the age of 60 were released into freedom.
Law No. 3270 was promulgated on September 28, 1885. It was brought into parliament by the liberal minister Sousa Dantas in 1884 and discussed controversially there. Resistance from the large landowners who needed slaves to work on their plantations delayed the passage of the law until 1885. The law is also known as Lei Saraiva-Cotegipe , since it was introduced under Prime Minister José Antônio Saraiva and passed under his successor Barão de Cotegipe . As early as 1871, the Lei do Ventre Livre law had been passed, which declared all children born to slaves to be free. The Lei dos Sexagenários was a further step towards the gradual abolition of slavery in Brazil, which only became a complete reality with the Lei Áurea in 1888.
