A Refuge from Science: The Practice and Politics of Rights in Brazil's Vaccine Revolt

Abstract

Abstract This article considers the rights-based opposition that helped fuel Rio de Janeiro's 1904 Vaccine Revolt. I argue that the revolt was embedded in sociolegal conflicts about the policing of homes. In the early twentieth century, empowered by new laws, public health agents invaded homes to disinfect them with sulfur to kill the mosquitoes that transmitted yellow fever, and to vaccinate residents against smallpox. An elite coalition invoked the constitutional right to the home's inviolability against state interference in this private space. For working-class people, this rights language resonated with long-lasting struggles for inclusion and equality. Since the nineteenth century, they had associated their homes with freedom, honor, and autonomy. Moreover, judicial records reveal that a less diverse group composed of immigrants, property owners, and labor leaders requested court orders to stop forced residential disinfections. This article shows how resistance in courts and on the streets mutually fueled each other.