Luiz Gama

Luiz Gama (1830-1882) was born in Salvador. The son of a Portuguese descendant with a free slave, he ended up being sold as a slave by the age of ten by his own father, who needed money to pay gambling debts. Manumission came at 17. As a self-taught man, he went on to study law and, using the letters of the law, began to defend slaves. "He was the greatest lawyer in the history of Brazil, due to his trajectory, his brilliance. He was a person who demonstrated the capacity and handling of the technicality of Law that are still impressive today", praises lawyer Silvio Luiz de Almeida, president of the Institute Luiz Gama and professor of law at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie.