In 1883, abolitionists, led by José do Patrocínio, followed the North-American example, and launched a campaign for creating free soils. The strategy consisted of buying up freedom certificates or persuading slave owners to give them for free at intervals. The tactic did not work well in the capital of the Empire. Then Patrocínio joined the campaign in Ceará, selected for having small slave stocks, strong local abolitionist associations, and a provincial president willing to support the movement. Abolitionists went house to house, city by city, and started a countdown to province-wide abolition. Patrocínio traveled to Paris, where, as Nabuco in London, organized events to showcase the movement’s international support and embarrass the national government, thus preventing repression. In March 1884, abolitionists declared Ceará to be "free soil." On the eve of mobilization, Patrocínio and Rebouças created the Abolitionist Confederation, embracing all abolitionist associations all over the country, and launched a manifesto for the immediate and non-indemnified abolition of slavery. The Abolitionist Confederation continued the free soil campaign around the country and organized propaganda events in the public space, making abolitionist presence impossible to be ignored. This strategy caused a crisis in the political institutions and a growing pro-slavery reaction.

The crisis led, in June 1884, to the appointment of a new Prime Minister, the Liberal Manuel de Souza Dantas, committed to a moderate abolitionist reform. The Abolitionist Confederation coordinated abolitionists nationwide to endorse the government and helped draft a proposal for gradual emancipation and conceiving rights to freed people, presented to Parliament in July 1884.The alliance government movement triggered a pro-slavery political backlash, with the creation of civil associations (Plantation Clubs) against the Dantas reform, while the caucus worked to obstruct it in parliament. Dantas then dissolved the House and called new elections. Joaquim Nabuco returned to Brazil to be the star of the coalition abolitionist movement/government, that stood candidates for parliament, in a nationwide abolitionist electoral campaign. The freedom soil campaign continued at the same time. The pro-slavery political faction managed to control the results of the election.The Dantas government fell and the gradual emancipation project was thwarted.