Advertising Gender Slave Database: Escravos de ganho in Rio de Janeiro, 1850-1880

This dataset classifies information on approximately 1,700 escravos de ganho, or rental slaves, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 1850 and 1880. Culled from a sample of announcements published in the city’s main business newspaper, the Jornal do Commercio (est. 1827), the dataset systematically records the sex and occupations of enslaved peoples advertised for hire. When available, it also includes information on age, race, rental rates, location of the owner, and additional observations on the occupational training, character, and capabilities of the available enslaved person. The dataset includes a sample of advertisements published every ten years beginning in 1850. The four years of the sample correspond to some of the major events leading to final emancipation in 1888, including the closing of the transatlantic slave trade (1850) and the Law of the Free Womb (1871). The dataset includes links to the original full-text classified advertisement, found in digitized copy in the Brazilian National Library’s Hemeroteca Digital.