The objective of this work is to discuss the meanings of the education of slaves in the nineteenth century. Many studies in the field of educational historiography point to the importance of diverse actions around the schooling of slaves. In Imperial Brazil, the opening of night schools for black people free and slaves was one of the actions of Abolitionist Clubs located in different provinces of the empire. The work seeks to dialogue with the existing academic production on the theme (FONSECA; VEIGA; WISSENBACH).  In the Imperial Court, the abolitionist schools coexisted with other schools of the genre, existing in other cities and even, provinces of the Empire. Through the analysis of periodicals such as the Gazeta de Notícias, it is possible to map the existence of projects aimed at the education of freedmen and slaves, especially in the period between the 1870s and 1880s. The present work uses letters, newspaper ads, autobiographical writings and memoirs, to understand how the education was important to get the emancipation. But who writes the texts of the slaves? Where did these guys learn to write? Are there first-person narratives? The work seeks to problematize the power of education and the uses of the written word as a form of emancipation of enslaved subjects.