The abolition of slavery signed in the Court on May 13th, 1888 was the beginning of a series of public celebrations ended only on May 21st, 1888. Among spontaneous celebrations of people who occupied the Palace Square (Largo do Paço) and other places in the city and the celebrations organized by the local press, the freedom was celebrated by several characters: literates, journalists, public employees, commerce workers, typographers and ex-slaves, all together under the cause of the same celebration. Considering such diversity of people celebrating the abolition, the present work aims to search in the May 13th celebration the dispute process of its senses and meanings. In addition, this work simultaneously tracks the period from 1888 to 1908 to identify the re-elaboration process of the memories related to the abolition celebration in order to try to understand the symbolic force of the event for many of its participants and also the ways that led to its lack of meaning the subsequent years.