Post-abolition is the period of Brazilian history immediately following the abolition of slavery in 1888. Defined as a major break in the system practiced until then, the period triggered significant changes in the Brazilian economy and society, which depended largely on slave labor. For the freedmen, in many ways their situation worsened. The government did not organize any program for their integration into society, and they were left to their own devices. The dominant white society remained steeped in racism and discrimination manifested itself at all levels. The vast majority of freedmen remained marginalized and deprived of access to health, education, vocational training, and the exercise of citizenship. Many lost their jobs and their homes and were forced to migrate in search of new jobs, which generally proved to be precarious and difficult. Misery became commonplace. The post-abolition period was the beginning of a long process of struggle by blacks for rights, dignity, recognition, and inclusion, which to this day is still unfinished.[1][2]The abolition freed about 700,000 slaves in 1888. At that moment most of the black and brown people in Brazil were already free. According to the 1872 census (the only one to take place in the imperial period), the slave population represented 15.24% of the total population of Brazil, while black and brown people in general represented 58% of that total.[3]
In the 1880s, with the influence of Joaquim Nabuco, two movements of great importance for the abolition of slavery, the Brazilian Society against Slavery and the Central Emancipating Association, began to gain strength.
It was after a visit to a chapel in Massangana, Pernambuco, that Nabuco recognized a moral problem regarding slavery, sparking a genuine interest in putting his life at the service of the "generous race".[4] At the age of 20, a deputy at the time, Joaquim began debates in Parliament on the project that aimed to free all slaves.[5]
Nabuco wrote several works about slavery, among them "Minha Formação"[6] and "O Abolicionismo",[7] claiming that "it is a crime, an attempt to civilization and to economic and political progress, it is responsible for the backwardness of the country, an obstacle to national construction. These are civic, public reasons".[4]
Nabuco's travels abroad facilitated his involvement with the abolitionist campaign. Inspired by the campaign against the slave trade and the "social movement",[8] two forms of pressure on the state, consequently on the authorities.
Another important figure for the success of this movement was José do Patrocínio, a radical abolitionist, unlike Nabuco, who was considered a moderate. Patrocínio defended that the campaign should take to the streets with the participation of the people, however, he affirmed that the people alone could not achieve the objectives, that it should be an "alliance of the sovereign with the people".
In opposition to Patrocínio's radicalism, Nabuco defended that this struggle was for a people without a voice, consequently it should be led by whites. These processes involved two aspects. The first, the progress of this movement could not go beyond the limits of monarchical legality, this should be a decision initially taken by the State and the slaveholding farmers, being solved within the institutional space, so that the situation would not have a dimension that the control could be lost. The second side is the one defended by Nabuco, that blacks could not be active subjects in the movement. There was a concern of the white elite involved in the conflict that emancipation could not affect the landowning economic order. In this case, the involvement of blacks in this process was fearful, because the elite feared that they could cause an uncontrolled society.
Despite the existence of some laws, such as the Free Womb Law in 1871, it was necessary to have a law that abolished slavery. Meanwhile, the abolitionist campaign initially promoted by Joaquim Nabuco in 1880, was of extreme importance for the Golden Law to be sanctioned by Princess Isabel in 1888, of No. 3,353, which had two articles "Art. 1°: It is declared extinct since the date of this law slavery in Brazil. And Art. 2°: The provisions to the contrary are revoked".[9]
Migration
Escapes and rebellions of captives in the imperial period were common, becoming one of the main concerns of the plantation owners of the time. In order to avoid such problems, the landlords tried to make sure that the slaves had a connection to the farm and to the owner. Some strategies, as an example of this, were the ties of gratitude. The plantation owner granted mass releases. This process occurred before abolition, and was intended to "arouse their gratitude... the slaves were to receive their freedom from his hands, not from the state, and perceive it as a lordly gift".[10]
These strategies used by the landlords, had nothing but the intent that after emancipation, the blacks would remain loyal to him and his land, in the "hope of retaining the freedmen".[4]
It was up to the captives the decision, post-abolition, of whether or not to remain on the land where they spent most of their lives. However, this displacement had to take into account how these newly freed men would survive in face of the freedom they had been given, in face of the slaves' desire to build a "family life, housing and domestic production",[4] thus controlling the pace of life they wanted. However, as the years went by, the mobility conquered by the slaves turned from an exercise of their freedom into a curse, taking into account the working conditions negotiated between the plantation owner and the free man who needed to survive.
To hinder the enslavement process, the registrations were important for the landlords, since a slave without them would be considered a freed man. The Republic burned these registrations, emphasizing the distinctions between the freeborn and the freedmen, who sought this distinction.
Migration in this period resulted in the marginalization of the black man, when the woman went from being a slave to being a maid in some residence. Freedom continued to be curtailed. The "study of this migration, in particular, as one of the elements of post-abolition history is that it originates from a context created both in the process of fixing the new forms of labor in the countryside, and from the absence of policies specifically aimed at ensuring some kind of access to land and credit for freedmen and their descendants".[4]
Parental power
After the Abolition, one of the issues that started to appear in guardianship proceedings was the color of the skin of poor mothers whose children were being taken under their guardianship, in an evident demonstration of the synonym of poverty that the simple mention of the "black" or "mulatto" color of such mothers could indicate. The legislation used by Brazilian Law in granting guardianship to orphans considered unfit was based on both Roman Law and the Philippine Ordinances, in which the woman was not granted parental power (characterized by the right to have control over the upbringing of underage children or, in some way, seen as incapable, by the parents).
After 1890, another issue that started to be recurrent in the guardianship processes was that of duly officialized marriages being used as support to try to recover the children under guardianship, a task undertaken by many families that had their children given to guardianship. However, in addition to the struggle for possession of their children these women would still have to submit to the good will of their partners, not always willing to contract marriage in the official sense.[11]
Marginalization
Black people in Porto Alegre a few years after abolition, 1895.The 14th São Paulo Black Consciousness March in 2017. The poster reads: "Slavery didn't end, we have nothing to celebrate".
The abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888 condemned the blacks to continue living as victims of the system, since they were free, but without education, documents, money, housing, employment, schooling or any other kind of social assistance provided by the State. Therefore, the Golden Law was unable to transform the deep economic and social inequalities. The master/slave relationship became white/black, both hierarchical.[12]
The abolition did not allow the blacks to have the same living conditions as the rest of the population, besides not bringing citizenship to the freed blacks. Sociologist and political scientist Antônio Carlos Mazzeo, from the São Paulo State University (Unesp), explains that there was little investment in the integration of the blacks into the national economy. "When the Golden Law was promulgated, the marginalization of the black man in Brazil happened. They were excluded from the economy", he adds. He says that this population is still marginalized. "Most black people live in favelas, without jobs, in prisons, and don't have access to education. Still in Brazil the black population is a systematic victim of racist ideology", he points out.
After the abolition, the black population went through great socio-economic difficulties, ignored by various sectors of society, which marginalized them and in a certain way pushed them out of the urban centers because of a hygienist policy, being the genesis of the slumming process.[13] However, it would not be wise to apply this pattern built by a traditional historiography with the purpose of establishing a universalization of the unemployed, illiterate, lazy, promiscuous black person, etc.
Even being in a situation of invisibility and exposed to recurring racism, freed blacks were also able to create new social and labor relations. With the end of slavery, it was possible to negotiate these new forms of work, for example on the old farms, becoming independent in subsistence farming or in new forms of urban work. Dário de Bittencourt and Carlos da Silva Santos are two examples of blacks who were born in the beginning of the 20th century, who had two different social conditions, but were academic intellectuals who were successful in the political world, going against the stereotype established after slavery.
This historiographical current has been criticized for romanticizing this marginalization of the freedman who was replaced by the European immigrant, a view that places a Paulista context as a single national history, not presenting an explanatory potential for an entire period.[14]
Acquired freedom
With the abolition, the enslaved person was no longer seen legally as an object, although he was seen as an individual with his own particularities, he conquered constitutional rights in this process of destruction of modern slavery in Brazil and in all America, linked to this extension of citizenship rights. With the end of this slavery structure, a new social order was produced, which established hierarchy, racial category and conditions to access the new political and civil rights.[15]
The Lei Áurea, officialy Law No. 3,353 of 13 May 1888, is the law that abolished slavery in Brazil. It was signed by Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil (1846–1921), an opponent of slavery, who acted as regent to emperor Pedro II, who was in Europe.
Joaquim Aurélio Barreto Nabuco de Araújo was a Brazilian writer, statesman, and a leading voice in the abolitionist movement of his country.
André Pinto Rebouças was a Brazilian military engineer, abolitionist and inventor, son of Antônio Pereira Rebouças (1798–1880) and Carolina Pinto Rebouças. Lawyer, member of Parliament and an adviser to Pedro II of Brazil, his father was the son of a manumitted slave and a Portuguese tailor. His brothers Antônio Pereira Rebouças Filho and José Rebouças were also engineers.
Minha formação is the autobiography of Joaquim Nabuco, a Brazilian writer, diplomat and abolitionist. First published in 1900, it is often cited as a classic of Brazilian literature.
José Carlos do Patrocínio was a Brazilian writer, journalist, activist, orator and pharmacist. He was among the most well-known proponents of the abolition of slavery in Brazil, and known as "Tigre da Abolição". He founded and occupied the 21st chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1897 until his death in 1905.
Movimento Negro is a generic name given to the diverse Afro-Brazilian social movements that occurred in 20th-century Brazil, particularly those movements that appeared in post-World War II Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
Vila Isabel is a middle-class neighborhood in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Known for being one of the cradles of samba in Brazil, it is located in the subprefecture of Grande Tijuca, its music-themed Boulevard 28 de Setembro celebrates the neighborhood's long musical heritage. The neighborhood was named in honor of Brazilian Princess Isabel, renowned for abolishing slavery in Brazil. It is home to Unidos de Vila Isabel, one of the most traditional samba schools in Rio de Janeiro.
Luís Gonzaga Pinto da Gama was a Brazilian rábula, abolitionist, orator, journalist and writer, and the Patron of the abolition of slavery in Brazil.
Racism has been present in Brazil since its colonial period and is pointed as one of the major and most widespread types of discrimination, if not the most, in the country by several anthropologists, sociologists, jurists, historians and others. The myth of a racial democracy, a term originally coined by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre in his 1933 work Casa-Grande & Senzala, is used by many people in the country to deny or downplay the existence and the broad extension of racism in Brazil.
Conservatism in Brazil designates the movement originated from certain cultural traditions of Brazil, as well as the relationship with Portuguese-Iberian cultural roots and diverse influences. The movement received influences from Roman heritage and part of Greek philosophy in its foundation in Christianity.
The Atlantic slave trade to Brazil occurred during the period of history in which there was a forced migration of Africans to Brazil for the purpose of slavery. It lasted from the mid-sixteenth century until the mid-nineteenth century. During the trade, more than three million Africans were transported across the Atlantic and sold into slavery. It was divided into four phases: The Cycle of Guinea ; the Cycle of Angola which trafficked people from Bakongo, Mbundu, Benguela and Ovambo; Cycle of Costa da Mina, now renamed Cycle of Benin and Dahomey, which trafficked people from Yoruba, Ewe, Minas, Hausa, Nupe and Borno; and the Illegal trafficking period, which was suppressed by the United Kingdom (1815-1851). During this period, to escape the supervision of British ships enforcing an anti-slavery blockade, Brazilian slave traders began to seek alternative routes to the routes of the West African coast, turning to Mozambique.
Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo Júnior, titled Count of Afonso Celso by the Holy See, better known as Afonso Celso, was a teacher, poet, historian and Brazilian politician. He is one of the founders of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, where he occupied the chair number 36.
The Black Guard of the Redemptress was a paramilitary secret society in Rio de Janeiro composed of Brazilian former African slaves freed on May 13, 1888, by the signature of the Golden Law by Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil.
Emília Viotti da Costa was a Brazilian historian and professor, known particularly for her work on slavery and abolition. Sacked from her job as a professor at the University of São Paulo by the military dictatorship in Brazil, she lived in the United States between 1973 and 1999, where she became an emeritus professor at Yale University.
Manuel Pinto de Sousa Dantas was a Brazilian lawyer, politician and Prime Minister of Brazil from 1884-1885, noted for his efforts to reform slavery.
African Culture in Rio Grande do Sul refers to the history, attributes, and values of African-Brazilian culture in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
The history of abolitionism in Brazil goes back to the first attempt to abolish indigenous slavery in Brazil, in 1611, to its definitive abolition by the Marquis of Pombal, in 1755 and 1758, during the reign of King Joseph I, and to the emancipation movements in the colonial period, particularly the 1798 Bahian Conspiracy, whose plans included the eradication of slavery. After the Independence of Brazil (1822), the discussions on this subject extended throughout the Empire period, acquiring relevance from 1850 onwards and a truly popular character from 1870 onwards, culminating with the signing of the Golden Law on May 13, 1888, which abolished slavery in Brazil.
The Saraiva-Cotegipe Law, also known as the Sexagenarian Law, officially Law No. 3,270 of 28 September 1885, was a Brazilian law enacted on 28 September 1885 that granted freedom to slaves aged 60 or older. Before the release, there would be mandatory and free service, which would be provided as compensation, paid to the slaves' masters; unless the slave reached 65 years of age.
The Brazilian Abolitionist Confederation was a political organization created on May 9, 1883, which brought together anti-slavery societies from all over the Empire with the objective of pressuring the Brazilian government to put an end to slavery. It mainly used the press, theater, meetings, conferences and local emancipation funds as forms of activism. Some of the most famous leaders of the Brazilian Abolitionist Movement were involved in the organization, such as José do Patrocínio, Joaquim Nabuco, André Rebouças, Luiz Gama and João Clapp.
The Brazilian Anti-Slavery Society was a Brazilian institution created by the engineer André Rebouças in partnership with statesman and writer Joaquim Nabuco, and lawyer and journalist José do Patrocínio. It was created on September 7, 1880, with the purpose of fighting against slavery in Brazil. Slavery was abolished in the country in 1888.
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