The article discusses the nature of the social relations of production that replaced slavery in Brazil during the second half of the 19th century, and explores the mechanisms of work subordination that allowed for the accumulation of capital in a context of ample availability of land. To that effect,�itanalyzestheMarxiantheories � regarding the formation of relative super-population and the genesis of agrarian income, while at the same time interpreting the way in which coronelismo made possible regional work mobilization processes in the country. Thus, it is possible to conclude that the existence of apparently personal forms of domination and of apparently not capitalistic social relations of production, especially with respect to the generation of free work in Brazil, was the result of the autonomous capitalist relations and a relative super-population at the national level.