Brazil, Abolitionism & The Monarchy’s Fall

- Emperor gets rid of the cabinet to get his conservative general support
- Cabinet resigns and embarrasses the emperor in the process
- Emperor gets new cabinet that is very conservative
- The cabinet gets rid of the chamber because they supported the old cabinet
- (Coup of 1868)

1. Law of the Free Womb (1871)

a. Political Realities After 1868
i. Coup of 1868 reinforced beliefs that the emperor exercised more
power than he should
ii. Liberal party is mad, and scared that the system they worked to put
into place is in danger from the emperors abuse of power (though
well within the laws)
iii. After 1863 (emancipation proclamation) Brazil is the only Slave
State
1. Emperor is afraid the British will put pressure on brazil to
end slavery (and he was right)
2. Decided to make an effort towards abolition (he is an
abolitionist)
3. Slavery is widely accepted in Brazil because it is believed
that the only reliable labor source was slave labor
iv. Emperor makes moves to end slavery
1. in the constitution he is not supposed to be the one who
creates policy, he is to oversee policy, not lead it
2. but because of the severity of the situation he decides to
move toward abolition
3. pressures the lower cabinets to bring it up in parliament
4. the movement is resisted at the highest levels of
government and in parliament
5. when he brings in the new conservative government, he has
more power to do this
6. tells cabinet to end the war and move on abolitionism
7. creates the Law of the Free Womb – anyone born after
1871 would be free, but before that would still be slave
a. did this to prevent economic and policitcal and
social instability
b. beginning of a gradual process of emancipation
c. largely a political dodge
v. minority in the conservative party begins an abolitionist movement
because they know that if the emperor is unhappy with the cabinet
they won’t last long.
vi. Visconde do Rio Branco – is a new prime minister who gets
abolitionist legislation passed
 vii. To get the ruling class (who depend on slavery to make the most
money) to agree the cabinet offers political patronage ($$)
viii. By getting the ruling class to agree and not rebel was to give them
some control and get them to move the direction, rather than the
government coming in and intervening
ix. Emperor tells his new prime minister to make the law and he does
b. Triumph of the Crown
c. Legacy for the Crown
i. Support for the monarchy is required for the continuation of
brazilian society
ii. Basically the emperor can do whatever he wants and if the cabinet
and everyone else does not support him nothing will get done
1. he can get rid of everyone that disagrees with him until he
finds someone that will do what he wants.
2. Current situation
a. Coffee is the overwhelming favorite export of brazil
b. Railroads allowed for the expansion of coffee
c. Sugar in the NE of Brazil has gone into a gradual decline
i. Meant politically that the free people were more dependent on the
state for patronage
d. Cacao, Tobacco and Cotton are tried in the North East
e. NE Steadily declines and basically just provides local sugar
f. Rubber movement (rise) in Amazonia but the effects are minimal, but
would later rival coffee by 1900
g. Emergence of the province of Sao Paulo as a prominent coffee producer
and by 1885 be the number one coffee producer
i. Single most successful province in the present day Brazil
ii.
3. The Movement for Abolition (1878-1888)
a. Shifts in Opinion & Politics
i. Power lends itself to the older generations because many positions
are life long tenure
ii. This means that areas in decline have more control over the new
Sao Paolo Rise
iii. This leads to the movement towards a Republic
iv. New party forms as an offshoot of the Liberal Party - Republican
and consists of two pillars
1. Pillar 1 - Some land holders in Sao Paolo (and elsewhere
but mainly here) and
2. Pillar – 2 middle class ideologues, lawyers doctors etc,
break off and form a Republican Party
a. Two groups comprise this
i. Positivists –
1. after French Revolution the middle
class wanted orderly movement
toward democracy
 2. Auguste Comte – wanted a scientific
state
3. wanted to study history to analyze
the history of human kind and find
the universal laws of progress in
civilization (European History)
4. assumption that all societies have a
similar progression
5. Enlightened monarch and social
scientists in charge (most
competent)– highly centralized and
authoritarian
6. this would (theoretically) allow
civilization to move in the
appropriate direction by removing
obstacles and therefore conflict
7.
ii. Federalist Representative Types – as in US
3. feel the monarchy has abused the situation and want a more
democratic/representative system
v. legislation of 1871 is not well enforced
vi. debate raised the issue of abolition and there is a change of public
opinion throughout the 1870’s
1. the society is becoming more urban
2. movement towards abolition
vii. 1878 liberal party returns to power
1. brings with it a few reformists
2. among the reformists is the man most closely associated
with the abolitionist movement – Joaquim Nabuco
a. comes from a distinguished northeast family and
came from a slave holding family
b. highly educated and a great orator – also pretty
c. consumed with the idea of a mission
d. wanted to do something glorious
e. decided on abolitionism
f. his father had been big on the abolitionist legislation
of 1871
g. took up the abolitionist cause after someone else
raised it initially – but he is an ideal proponent
3. other people join the movement
4. Members of the urban middle class become critical
components of the abolitionist movement
a. Andre Reboucas
i. Rio Professional
ii. Afro-brazilian
b. Jose Patrocinio
 i. Journalists
ii. Great speaker/writer
1. energized people
iii. also afro-brazilian
iv. tried to make it a racial issue
1. tried to reach out to the afro-
brazilians and get them to mobilize
c. Luis Gama
i. Born free, but sold into slavery, father white
and mother black. father dealt with his
gambling debts by selling him into slavery
ii. Became a warrior
iii. Critical in the more radical wing
iv. Ipso facto argument based on the 1831
ending of slave importation, took it really far
to say that any slave after 1831 should be
free
d. Newspaper that come out in 1870’s and 80’s engage
the issue of abolition
i. Have large readership and attempt to
enflame readers toward support for abolition
e. 1884&85 two provinces in the North of Brazil
claimed themselves free of slavery and became a
safe haven for slaves smuggled out of plantations
via an underground railroad
f. Examples of leaders from the middle class
g. Large part of free Brazilians are partial or whole
African
h. People sent out to rural areas to attempt to arouse
the slaves on plantations to mobilize
viii. People in power have no experience dealing with a multi-class
movement so organized towards a goal
b. Origin of the Movement
c. Strategy & Success
i. Why it was successful
1. 1870’s there is a shift of where slaves of held
2. end of slave trade drove prices up
3. coffee farmers had the money and need for slaves
4. by the 1870’s there is a much larger percentage of slaves in
rural areas – only the very wealthy could afford servants
5. movement of slaves from the northeast (who had Indian
labor) to the south east
ii. Sao Paolo decides that the disruption caused by the movement that
it would be wise to push abolition forward
1. declared themselves free of slavery and got the gov’t to
subsidize the importation of paid laborers
iii. Many big plantations had all their equity in their slaves and
financed their operations by leveraging debts against their slaves
iv. Success comes through the crown
1. Emperor is in Italy due to medical reasons
2. Daughter – Princess Isabella is the regent and strong
abolitionist
3. Joao Alfredo is put into power as prime minister with the
express condition that he abolish slavery
v. May 13, 1888 – slavery abolished in Brazil
vi. Immediate response is that the slave holders who were avid
defenders
1. young men shifted to republican party
a. haven’t dealt with crown long and decide to take
action
2. older men took a less than enthusiastic view toward the
crown
a. dealt with the crown for a while and are truly
disgusted with it but don’t want to join a new party