Based on diverse sources, which brings together
iconographic documents, newspapers
and legislative production, we seek to
understand, in this article, the place attributed
to popular education as a mechanism
for social organization and progress in the
country, in the last decades of the 19th
century, as well as in overcoming racism,
in the present day. The proposals considered
here emphasize the discussion
around the tripod “race, racism and freedom”,
where the acquisition of instruction
and education, via school, came to be perceived
as a right to be conquered. The text
discusses some distinctions between ancient
slavery and modern slavery; the discourse
of valuing education as an instrument
for moralizing society; as well as the
importance of racial discourse, based on
society’s defenses of whitening.
