User:Kmascara/Slavery in Brazil

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There were relatively few large revolts in Brazil for much of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, most likely because the expansive interior of the country provided disincentives for slaves to flee or revolt. In the years after the Haitian Revolution, ideals of liberty and freedom had spread to even Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro in 1805, "soldiers of African descent wore medallion portraits of the emperor Dessalines." Jean-Jacques Dessalines was one of the African leaders of the Haitian Revolution that inspired blacks throughout the world to fight for their rights as humans to live and die free.

After the defeat of the French in Haiti, demand for sugar continued to increase and without the consistent production of sugar in Haiti the world turned to Brazil as the next largest exporter  African slaves continued to be imported and were concentrated in the northeastern region of Bahia, a region infamous for cruel, yet prolific, sugar plantations. African slaves recently brought to Brazil were less likely to accept their condition and eventually were able to create coalitions with the purpose of overthrowing their masters. From 1807 to 1835, these groups instigated numerous slave revolts in Bahia with a violence and terror that were previously unknown.

In one notable instance, enslaved people who revolted and ran away from the Engenho Santana in Bahia sent their former plantation owner a peace proposal outlining the terms under which they would return to enslavement. The enslaved people wanted peace and did not want war. They came up with a proposal that would serve as a peace offering among their master and all of his enslaved people. The terms were outlined as such: Enslaved people are to be given Fridays and Saturdays to work for themselves and these two days are not to be subtracted or counted as Saint's days. Furthermore, they must be given casting nets and canoes for survival. Slaves are also not obliged to fish in tidal pools or gather shellfish and if the master wishes to eat shellfish, the slaves asked to send your mina blacks. The proposal also stated the request of making a large boat so that when it goes to Bahia, the slaves can place their cargoes aboard and not pay freightage of carrying the goods in bulks. In addition, in the planting of manioc, they requested that the men have a daily quota of two and a half hands and for the women, two hands. For manioc flour, the daily quota must be five level alqueires or also equivalent to 36.27 litres in dry measure.

The daily quota for sugarcane was set to five hands rather than six and with ten canes in each bundle. Next, on the boats it was stated that there are to be four poles, and one pole for the rudder to steer the ship, and the one at the rudder must work hard for the slaves. Upon that request, the wood that is sawed using a hand saw must have three men below and one men above. The following on the list was that the measure of firewood had to be practiced here, and for each measure a woodcutter and a woman had to be the wood carrier. The peace proposal also stated that they did not want the present oversees and to choose new ones with the approval of the slaves first. In the proposal, it was also written that at the milling rollers there has to be four women to feed in the cane, two pulleys, and a carcanha. Also, at each cauldron or pot there must be a person to tend the fire and this also must apply to each series of kettles.

On Saturdays, there must be no work at all in the mill without fail. On top of that, sailors that go in the launch beside the baize shirt, must be provided with a jacket baize and with all other necessary clothing. The slaves agreed to go and work the canefield of Jabirú but it must remain as a pasture as they would not cut cane in the swamp. The terms also pointed out that the slaves are to be allowed to plant rice wherever they want and in any marsh, without needing to ask permission. Each slave is also allowed to cut jacaranda or any other wood without having to be accounted for it. The proposal concluded with saying that by accepting all the terms stated in the proposal and always allowing the slaves to possess the hardware, they would be ready to serve the master just as they did before but they do not want to continue living the bad customs like how it was in the other engenhos or known as sugar cane mills and facilities. Their last request was that they are to be able to play, relax and sing at any time they wished to do so without being hindered and that asking permission was not needed to do any of that.

^^^ relevance????? find better source

Quilombo (runaway slaves)[edit]

Main article: Quilombo

Escaped slaves formed maroon communities which played an important role in the histories of other countries such as Suriname, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica. In Brazil the maroon settlements were called quilombos.

Quilomobos were usually located near colonial population centers or towns. Apart from hostile Indian forces that prevented both former slaves penetrating deeper into Brazil's interior, the main reason for this proximity is that quilomobos usually were not self-sufficient. The communities were parasitic, relying on raids, theft, and extortion to make ends meet and in many ways presenting a real threat to the colonial social order.

Colonial officials thus saw quilombo residents as criminals and quilomobos themselves as threats that must be exterminated. Raids on quilombos were brutal and frequent, in some cases even employing Native Americans as slave catchers. Bandierantes also conducted raids on fugitive slave communities (the prmary source account)

In the long run, most fugitive slave communities were eventually destroyed by colonial authorities.

The most famous of these communities was Quilombo dos Palmares. Here escaped slaves, army deserters, mulattos, and Native Americans flocked to participate in this alternative society. Quilombos reflected the people's will and soon the governing and social bodies of Palamares mirrored Central African political models. From 1605 to 1694 Palmares grew and attracted thousands from across Brazil. Though Palmares was eventually defeated and its inhabitants dispersed among the country, the formative period allowed for the continuation of African traditions and helped create a distinct African culture in Brazil.

Recent scholarship has underscored the existence of quilombos as an important form of protest against a slave society. The word "quilombo" itself means "war-camp" and was a phrase tied to effective African military communities in Angola. This etymology has lead scholar Stuart Schwartz to theorize that the use of this word among fugitive slaves in Palmares was evident of a deliberate desire among fugitive slaves to form a community with effective military might.

Enslavement of Indigenous peoples[edit]

Intertribal Enslavement Prior to European Arrival and its Implications

Long before Europeans came to Brazil and began colonization, indigenous groups such as the Papanases, the Guaianases, the Tupinambás, and the Cadiueus enslaved captured members of other tribes. The captured lived and worked with their new communities as trophies to the tribe's martial prowess. Some enslaved would eventually escape but could never re-attain their previous status in their own tribe because of the strong social stigma against slavery and rival tribes. During their time in the new tribe, enslaved indigenes would even marry as a sign of acceptance and servitude. For the enslaved of cannibalistic tribes, execution for devouring purposes (cannibalistic ceremonies) could happen at any moment.

Such reported actions of cannibalism and intertribal ransom were used to justify the enslavement of Native Americans throughout the colonial period. The Portuguese were seen as fighting a just war when enslaving indigenous populations, supposedly rescuing them from their own cruelty. This focus on pre-colonial enslavement has been criticized as it flies in the face of the reality that Portuguese enslavement of Amerindians (and later Africans) was practiced at a much larger scale than prior local enslavment practices. (texboo k_)

Religious leaders at the time also pushed back against this narrative. In 1653, Padre Antonio Viera delivered a sermon in the city of Sao Luis de Maranhao in which he maintained that the forced enslavement of natives was a sin, calling out his listeners for thinking that the capture of Indians was justified and "giving the pious name of rescue to a sale so forced and violent."

After European Arrival

The Portuguese first traveled to Brazil in 1500 under the expedition of Pedro Álvares Cabral, though the first Portuguese settlement was not established until 1516.

Soon after the arrival of the Portuguese, it became clear a commercial colonial undertaking would would be difficult on such a vast continent. Indigenous slave labor was quickly turned to for agricultural workforce needs, particularly due to the expanding needs of the sugar industry,

Due to this pressure, slaving expeditions for Native Americans became common, despite opposition from the Jesuits who had their own ways of controlling and subsequently converting with native populations through institutions like aldeias, or villages where they concentrated Indian populations for ease of conversion. And as the population of coastal Native Americans dwindled due to harsh conditions, warfare, and disease, slave traders increasingly moved further inland in bandieras, or formal slaving expeditions. These expeditions were composed of bandeirantes, adventurers who penetrated steadily westward in their search for Indian slaves . These adventurers Bandierantes came from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, including plantation owners, traders, and members of the military, as well as people of mixed ancestry and previously captured Indian slaves. Banderiantes frequently targeted Jesuit missions, capturing thousands of natives from them in the early 1600s.

Beyond the capture of new slaves and recapture of runaways, bandeiras could also be large quasi-military forces tasked with exterminating native populations who refused to be subjected alongside other goals like finding gold and other precious metals. As evident through an account of one of Inacio Correia Pamplona's expeditions, banderiantes saw themselves as civilizers, disrupting native populations while enriching themselves (PG 337 DOC BOKO)

In 1629, Antônio Raposo Tavares led a bandeira, composed of 2,000 allied índios, "Indians", 900 mamelucos, "mestizos" and 69 whites, to find precious metals and stones and to capture Indians for slavery. This expedition alone was responsible for the enslavement of over 60,000 indigenous people.

As time went on though, it became increasingly clear that indigenous slavery alone would not meet the needs of sugar plantation labor demands. For one thing, life expectancy for Native American slaves was very low. Overwork and disease decimated native populations. Furthermore, Native Americans were familiar with the land, meaning they had the incentive and ability to escape from their slaveowners. For these reasons, starting in the 1570s, African slaves became the labor force of choice on the sugar plantations. Indian slavery did continue in Brazil's frontiers until well into the 18th century, but on a smaller scale than African slaves (TEXTBOOK)

Enslavement of Africans

In the first 250 years after the colonization of the land, roughly 70% of all immigrants to the colony were enslaved people. Indigenous slaves remained much cheaper during this time than their African counterparts. Although the average African slave lived to only be twenty-three years old because of terrible work conditions, this was still about four years longer than Indigenous slaves, which was a big contribution to the high price of African slaves.

African slaves were also more desirable due to their experience working in sugar plantations. In a particular mill in São Vicente in the 1540s, for example, African slaves were said to have held all the most skilled positions including the crucial role of sugar master, even though they were vastly outnumbered by native slaves at the time.

It is impossible to pinpoint when the first African slaves arrived in Brazil but estimates range anywhere in the 1530s. Regardless, African slavery was established at least by 1549, when the first governor of Brazil, Tome de Sousa, arrived with slaves sent from the king himself (OPTIONAL READING)

Enslavement of Other Groups

Slavery was not only endured by native Indians or blacks. As the distinction between prisoners of war and slaves was blurred, the enslavement, although at a far lesser scale, of captured Europeans also took place. The Dutch were reported to have sold Portuguese, captured in Brazil, as slaves, and of using African slaves in Dutch Brazil There are also reports of Brazilians enslaved by barbary pirates while crossing the ocean.

In the subsequent centuries, many freed slaves and descendants of slaves became slave owners. Eduardo França Paiva estimates that about one third of slave owners were either freed slaves or descendants of slaves.

Resistance[edit]

There were relatively few large revolts in Brazil for much of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, most likely because the expansive interior of the country provided disincentives for slaves to flee or revolt. In the years after the Haitian Revolution, ideals of liberty and freedom had spread to even Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro in 1805, "soldiers of African descent wore medallion portraits of the emperor Dessalines." Jean-Jacques Dessalines was one of the African leaders of the Haitian Revolution that inspired blacks throughout the world to fight for their rights as humans to live and die free. After the defeat of the French in Haiti, demand for sugar continued to increase and without the consistent production of sugar in Haiti the world turned to Brazil as the next largest exporter African slaves continued to be imported and were concentrated in the northeastern region of Bahia, a region infamous for cruel, yet prolific, sugar plantations. African slaves recently brought to Brazil were less likely to accept their condition and eventually were able to create coalitions with the purpose of overthrowing their masters. From 1807 to 1835, these groups instigated numerous slave revolts in Bahia with a violence and terror that were previously unknown.

In one notable instance, enslaved people who revolted and ran away from the Engenho Santana in Bahia sent their former plantation owner a peace proposal outlining the terms under which they would return to enslavement. The enslaved people wanted peace, not war, and asked for better working conditions and more control over their time as a condition for returning.

In general though, large scale, dramatic slave revolts were relatively uncommon in Brazil. Most resistance revolved around purposeful slowdowns in work or sabotage. In extreme cases, resistance also took the form of self-destruction via suicide or infanticide. The most common form of slave resistance, however, was escape. (SCHWARTZ). I