#20355 - L2 Abolition Of Slavery - Modern Latin American History

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

Two phases of anti-slavery legislation

• PRE 1850;

• 1808-1822: series of trade treaties

• 1822-1831: ‘abolition for recognition’

• 1831: anti-slave trade law not implemented

• 1831-1850: illegal phase of trans-Atlantic slave trade

• 1850: Queirós Law, legal end to trans-Atlantic slave trade to Brazil

• POST 1850;

• 1871: Free Womb Law

• 1884: Ceará and Amazonas abolish slavery

• 1885: Goias and Parana abolish slavery

• 1885: Sexagenarian Law

• 1886: Whipping banned

• 1888: Abolition

Two phases of anti-slavery activism

• PRE 1850;

• Causes: external and international

• Protagonists: British

• POST 1850;

• Causes: Internal and domestic

• Protagonists: Brazilian, Many and varied

Economy and demography

• Regions;

• Northeast: Bahia, Pernambuco

• Southeast: Minas Gerais, Rio, Sao Paulo

• Commodity;

• Northeast: Sugar (16^th-17^th century)

• Southeast: Gold (Minas Gerais, 18^th century), Coffee (Rio, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, 19^th century)

• The economic cycles moved across the landscape of the region and through the different political periods of colonial and imperial Brazil impacting regions differently

• While goldmining is associated economically with Minas Gerais, both gold and diamond-mining extended into Matto Grosso to the West and Bahia to the north of Minas Geris

• The periodisation that these cycles represent highlight Brazilian dominance of a commodity on world markets during each phase

• Although gold mining went through a classic boom and bust cycle in the eighteenth century, mineral wealth never disappeared completely from the Brazilian export economy

• Brazilian sugar too lost its pre-eminence on world markets permanently by the end of the 17^th century but remains a feature of the export economy to the present day, and in regions outside of the north east too

• Coffee continued to dominate the economic and political life of Brazil way beyond the Abolition of slavery in 1888 and well into the 20^th century

Slave labour

• Plantation: sugar and coffee

• Mining: Gold, diamonds and minerals

• Farming: Ranching, cane-farmers, tobacco, manioc and cotton

• Urban: Porters, sailors, fishing, household, artisan, street traders, foodstuffs, clothing, shoes, manufacturers, musicians, construction

Economic and demographic change

Brazil and the transatlantic slave trade

• This map shows the direction of the trade over time, the regional destinations and the proportions of the trade relative to those regions

• Brazil is part of the trade at the beginning and at the end

• Between the 16^th and 18^th century we see how the trade grew as other European nations moved into the trade

• The British, French and Portuguese colonies in the Americas became the main destination for slavers

Changes to the trans-Atlantic slave trade

• In the table (right) we have the data from slave voyages which arrives at a figure of over 12 million enslaved Africans as the one for which there is some consensus in terms of the magnitude of the trade.

• If we compare the pie chart (left) based on earlier estimates with the data from slave voyages we arrive at a very high, but different percentage share for Brazil of the trade, from the upper 30s to the mid 40s

• Upon closer examination, they expose the consequences of Brazil remaining in the trade for so long after the majority of their counterparts and competitors in the Americas had withdrawn from the trade

1808 – 1831:Anglo-Brazilian treaties

• Role of British

• 1808: British Naval protection transfer of Portuguese Royal Court (Canning); British defence of Portugal in Peninsular Wars (Wellington); British commander in chief of Portuguese Army (Beresford)

• 1822-23: Thomas Cochrane, command Brazilian navy, expel Portuguese from NE Brazil; suppressed ‘republican’ uprising Pernambuco & Maranhão

• 1826: Secure compensation for Portugal for loss of colony: loan funded by London banks (2m, Brazil’s first foreign loan)

• Anglo-Brazilian treaties

• 1810: Treaty of Alliance, Britain, and Brazil, cooperate in gradual abolition of slave trade and outlaw traffic immediately in non-Portuguese territories in Africa

• 1815: Cessation of trans-Atlantic slave trade North of Equator. British Navy right to stop and search ships under suspicion; seize and capture illicit cargo; subject to trial by British Commission in Sierra Leone and mixed Commission Rio

• 1817: Partial ban on traffic agreed by João VI

• 1822 to 1826: ‘Recognition for Abolition’; Brazil agrees to ban on international traffic in three years

• The British made it possible for the Portuguese royal court to escape Lisbon and avoid the otherwise fatal consequences for them of the Napoleonic invasion. This protection was granted on the basis of two big concessions from the Portuguese Crown that would alter the course of the history of Colonial Brazil: the promise to end the trans-Atlantic slave trade and to open ‘Portuguese’ ports to direct trade with the British

• We shouldn’t lose sight of the continuing military and political role of the British in Portugal; first, during the Napoleonic Wars and second, in gain recognition from Portugal for Brazilian Independence

• This allowed Britain to exert considerable leverage in both Portuguese and Brazilian external affairs, which included the slave trade

• This external context reveals the conditions the Portuguese crown in Brazil had to consider when negotiating with Britain during this period

• This meant that the Portuguese Crown was caught in a double-bind in its relations with the British. It depended on British military intervention in its absence during and after the Napoleonic Wars to bring stability to Portugal, but then was also forced to a call on British intervention to expel pro-Portuguese forces from Brazil during the Wars of Brazilian Independence

• Britain became the main mediator between Portugal and the newly independent Brazil, which increased Brazilian dependence on Britain, financially, diplomatically, and politically

• Through the role of the British during this period, we can explain the ‘external’ pressures that lead to the promulgation of the first piece of anti-slave trade legislation in Brazil in 1831, and in a way that perhaps illustrates why the Brazilian authorities never committed to enforcing it

• In 1810, with the Portuguese government in Rio virtually under British protection, Prince Regent João agreed in a treaty of alliance to the gradual abolition of the slave trade and to outlaw the traffic immediately in all non-Portuguese territories in Africa

• In another treaty in 1815 the then King Joao VI agreed to a cessation of trans-Atlantic slave trade North of the Equator too, meaning that the British Navy now had the right to board suspected slave ships (slavers) seize the goods, including enslaved Africans, and bring the accused to be tried before courts known as Mixed Commissions the British had set up in Sierra Leone and Rio

• The need to get the Brazilian government to repeatedly make a commitment to end the slave trade is revealing of not just British pressure, but the reluctance of Brazil to end its part in the trade

1831 – 1851: The illegal phase and ‘effective prohibition’

• 1830: Anglo-Brazilian treaty to end of ‘legal’ trans-Atlantic slave trade

• 1831: Liberal government in Rio legislates for freedom of all slaves entering Brazil from then on. Not implemented.

• 1831: Abolition of slavery of Indians

• 1839: Palmerston Bill, Great Britain unilateral rights to arrest and try Portuguese citizens suspected of involvement in the slave trade (ie slave ships flying the Portuguese flag).

• 1845: Aberdeen Act, British Navy now able to treat Brazilian slavers as pirate vessels and send them to British Vice Admiralty courts.

• 1848: British funded anti-slave trade press

• 1849-1850: Brazil faces blockade of ports by British Navy.

• 1850 – Legal end of Trans-Atlantic slave trade to Brazil.

• The Brazilian government had agreed in the 1820s to legislate for the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade by the end of the decade. This commitment became act of legislation in November 1831

• But British politicians and abolitionists were aware that Brazil was not complying and the pressure continued through all channels

• Britain was also aggressively pursuing a legal declaration from Portugal on the illegality of the trade, and in 1839 the Palmerston Bill granted Britain the legal right to seize ships flying the Portuguese flag which were suspected of being slavers

• The Aberdeen Act of 1845 marked a flashpoint and turning point, though. Brazil had decided to terminate previous treaties which had agreed to allow British Navy the right to stop and search Brazilian vessels. The Aberdeen Act was an act of British retaliation, whereby it abolished the mixed commissions and declared the right to seize all Brazilian ships caught on the high seas and take them before a British vice-admiralty court

• The British Navy was now entering Brazilian waters and destroying Brazilian ships, which was itself a breach of international law, and Brazil finally agreed to a complete cessation of the trade on 4 September 1850

Abolition and abolitionism, 1850 – 1888

• 1850s: Abolitionist societies: legal & medical schools, urban

• 1860s: emancipationist literature (Castro Alves); 1869: A Reforma: new Liberal newspaper, emancipationist agenda, published in Rio de Janeiro. Voice of new Liberal Party...