[1] This law was named after Eusébio de Queirós Coutinho Matoso da Câmara, who was the Brazilian Minister of Justice from 1848–1852.

[1] The law was put into action by the government acting under emperor Pedro II.

It reinforced a previous law that was put into place on 7 November 1831,[2] but had never been fully enforced and it also was based on an 1837 anti-slave trade bill of Felisberto Caldeira Brant, which had not been enacted into a law.

[2] This bill was modified and reintroduced into the Chamber of Deputies and eventually passed.

In 1845, the British parliament enacted the Aberdeen Act, which allowed British cruisers to seize Brazilian slave ships in attempts to end their slave trade.