Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE LEGEND OF ZUMBI
The largest and most famous of all Brazil's rebellious
quilombos
(refugee communities) was
Palmares
, a vibrant community of freed slaves in the interior of the northeastern state of
Alagoas that remained independent between 1605 and 1694. Not much is known about
Palmares, but scholars estimate up to 11,000 fugitives may have lived there at its height,
a combination of several
mocambos
or villages. Contemporary accounts of the many
Portuguese expeditions sent to crush the community talk of a semi-mythical leader dubbed
Ganga Zumba - his successor, Zumbi, waged almost constant war against the Portuguese.
Zumbi
was captured and beheaded in 1695 (Palmares was totally destroyed in 1694), and
though almost nothing is known about him, he is revered as a symbol of freedom today. The
day of his death - November 20 - has been celebrated as a day of Afro-Brazilian awareness
(“Dia da Consciência Negra”), primarily in Rio and Salvador, since 2003.
States - yet the death rate in Brazil was so great that in 1860 Brazil's slave population
was half the size of that in the US. Slavery was always contested. Slaves fled from the
cities and plantations to form refugee communities called
quilombos
; the largest was
Palmares
(see box above).
It was not until the nineteenth century that slavery was seriously challenged. The
initial impetus came from Britain, where the slave trade had been abolished in 1807.
Large landowners in Brazil regarded abolition with horror, and a combination of racism
and fear of economic dislocation led to a determined rearguard action to preserve
slavery. A complicated diplomatic waltz began between Britain and Brazil, as slavery
laws were tinkered with
para inglês ver
- “for the English to see” - a phrase that survives
in Portuguese to this day, meaning to do something merely for show. Brazil made the
slave trade
o
cially illegal in 1830, but British abolitionists were not deceived, and
until the 1850s the Royal Navy maintained a squadron off Brazil, intercepting and
confiscating slave ships, and occasionally entering Brazilian ports to seize slavers and
burn their vessels - one of history's more positive examples of gunboat diplomacy. In
1850 the Brazilian parliament finally passed a law enforcing the slave trade ban, and
after 1851 few African slaves entered the country - but slavery itself remained legal.
Ultimately it was a passionate campaign within Brazil itself, led by the fiery lawyer
Joaquim Nabuco
(1849-1910), that finished slavery off. The growing liberal movement,
increasingly republican and anti-monarchist, squared off against the landowners, with
Dom Pedro II hovering indecisively somewhere in between. By the time full
emancipation
came, in the “Golden Law” of May 13, 1888, Brazil had achieved the shameful distinction
of being the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery.
The first republic (1889-1930)
The end of slavery was also the death knell of the
monarchy
. Since the 1870s the
intelligentsia, deeply influenced by French liberalism, had turned against the emperor
and agitated for a republic. By the 1880s they had been joined by the o
cer corps,
who blamed Dom Pedro II for lack of backing during the Paraguayan war. When the
large landowners withdrew their support, furious that the emperor had not prevented
emancipation, the
monarchy collapsed
very suddenly in 1889.
1864-70
1879-1912
1880s
1888
Paraguayan War:
Argentina, Brazil and
Uruguay crush Paraguay
The Amazon
rubber boom
British railway
workers introduce
football to Brazil
Slavery abolished;
European immigrants
flood into Brazil
