“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Through these types of demands, Flores and his allies linked their revolution to the
Brazilian government’s attempts to consolidate its own authority over the southern
borderlands. The growing conflicts across the Uruguayan border provided an opportunity
to secure the support of the powerful ranching elites in Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay,
along with a reliable international ally. To support these aims, diplomatic negotiations were
underway between the blanco government in Montevideo and imperial officials led by José
Antonio Saraiva. 83 Saraiva’s demands explicitly included the discharge of all Brazilians
wrongfully impressed into the Uruguayan military, as well as punishment for civil and
military commanders guilty of criminal violations against imperial subjects. 84 These
negotiations above all aimed to pave the way for a Brazilian invasion. Pastor and his local
allies were providing the Brazilian government with continuing evidence of the violation of
her subjects’ (as well as Argentine citizens’) rights throughout the borderlands in an effort to
redraw political boundaries to serve their personal interests. In short, they lent legal support
to imperial military plans.
Conclusion
Disputes over the meaning of citizenship played out in a number of different fora
and in a multitude of ways for borderlands residents. For Brazilian slaves like Fermin
Ferreira, their own freedom hinged on their skills in navigating national legal differences and
factional conflicts to advance their rights. Claiming free status also required mobilizing
collective networks of solidarity to pry open factional divisions. It equally demanded a
sophisticated sense of where to deploy these resources, when to assert citizenship, how to
appeal to national law and when to turn their backs and simply run. The ephemeral nature
83 Whigham, The Paraguayan War, 147-48.
84 Ibid., 148.
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