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Paths to Freedom

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The Black Man in Slavery and Freedom in Colonial Brazil

Part of the book series: St Antony’s/Macmillan Series ((STANTS))

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Abstract

A black presence in Portuguese America was the result of an intense slave trade between the ports of Brazil and West Africa for some 300 years. Blacks had been imported into Brazil during the period of the donatories, but it was only with the establishment of the governor-generalship in 1549 and the subsequent development of the sugar plantations that the import of slaves became essential to the Brazilian economy.1 The slave trade has received extensive treatment elsewhere and will only be described here briefly in so far as is necessary to an appreciation of the position of the free black and the free mulatto in the colonial era.2

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Notes

  1. For discussion of the introduction of African slaves, see Serafim Leite, SJ, História da Companhia de Jesus no Brasil, 10 vols (Rio de Janeiro-Lisbon, 1938–50) II, 344; História da colonização portuguesa do Brazil, under the direction of Malheiro Dias, 3 vols (Oporto, 1921–24) III, 262–3.

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  2. General surveys are Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade; Vianna Filho, O negro na Bahia; Frédéric Mauro, Le Portugal et l’Atlantique au xviiesiècle (1570–1670). Etude économique (Paris, 1960) pp. 152–81, and his L’ Atlantique portugais et les esclaves (1570–1670) (Lisbon, 1956); Verger, Bahia and the West Coast Trade and Flux et reflux de la traite des nègres; unusually interesting on the trade from the Costa da Mina is an anonymous report of the late eighteenth century entitled ‘Discurso preliminar, histórico, introdutivo, com natureza da descrição econômica da comarca e cidade da Bahia’, published in Anais da Biblioteca Nacional, XXVII (1906) 281–348, and republished with an introduction by Pinto de Aguiar as Aspectos da economia colonial (Salvador, 1957) especially pp. 132–5, 144–5;

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  3. Antonio Carreira, As companhias pombalinas de navegação, comércio e tráfico de escravos entre a costa africana e o nordeste brasileiro (Oporto, 1969);

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  4. Maurício Goulart, Escravidão africana no Brasil (Das origens à extinção do tráfico) (São Paulo, 1949); Klein, The Middle Passage, pp. 23–72;

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  5. Joseph C. Miller, ‘Legal Portuguese slaving from Angola. Some Preliminary Indications of Volume and Direction, 1760–1830’, in La traite des noirs (Paris, 1976) pp. 135–76;

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  6. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825 (London, 1969) pp. 84–105. Two recent surveys by Christopher Fyfe on the African dispersal and the transatlantic slave trade, and by Joseph C. Miller on the Congo and Angola, are contained in The African Diaspora. Interpretive Essays (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1976), edited by Martin L. Kilson and Robert I. Rotberg.

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  7. Writing to the king in 1738, the Count of Galvêas (viceroy, 1735–49) noted this change and the excessive prices of slaves from the Costa da Mina at 150$000 and up, and continued: ‘desta alteração de preços com o excesso de quaze duas partes mais do seu antigo vallor, foi a primeyra origem da decadencia em que ao prezente se achão as lavouras do Brazil’, APB, ‘Ordens régias’, vol. 34, doc. 15. On terminology, see C. R. Boxer, The Golden Age of Brazil, 1695–1750 (Berkeley, 1969) pp. 175–6; Aguiar, Aspectos, p. 132; Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade, pp. 208–9;

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  8. Carlos F. Ott, Formação e evolução étnica da cidade do Salvador, 2 vols (Salvador, 1955, 1957) I, p. 58; Vianna Filho, O negro na Bahia, pp. 25–6. For slave preferences in English North America,

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  9. see Donald D. Wax, ‘Preferences for Slaves in Colonial America’, JNH, LVIII: 4 (October 1973) 371–401. On Bahian tobacco and the slave trade,

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  10. see Verger, ‘Rôle joué par le tabac de Bahia dans la traite des esclaves au Golfe de Bénin’, Cahiers d’études africaines, IV: 15 (1964) 349–69.

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  11. General surveys of population distribution are Caio Prado Júnior, The Colonial Background of Modern Brazil (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967) pp. 123–9;

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  12. Dauril Alden, ‘The Population of Brazil in the Late Eighteenth Century: A Preliminary Survey’, HAHR, XLIII: 2 (May 1963) 173–205. Estimates for Minas Gerais are contained in Goulart, Escravidão africana, pp. 164–71. For Pará and Maranhão,

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  13. see Colin M. MacLachlan, ‘African slave trade and economic development in Amazonia, 1700–1800’, in Robert Brent Toplin (ed.), Slavery and Race Relations in Latin America (Westport, 1974), pp. 112–45.

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  14. A recent overview is Thomas W. Merrick and Douglas H. Graham, Population and Economic Development in Brazil, 1800 to the Present (Baltimore, 1979) pp. 26–36, 49–79.

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  15. Dom Lourenço de Almeida to the king, Vila Rica, 28 September 1721, APMSG, vol. 23, fol. 101; also letter of 19 April 1722, exhorting the king to send married couples from the Atlantic islands, idem, fols. 109–10. See also A. J. R. Russell-Wood, ‘Female and Family in the Economy and Society of Colonial Brazil’, in Asuncion Lavrin (ed.), Latin American Women. Historical Perspectives (Westport, 1978), especially pp. 62–6. In his letter of 20 April to the king, the governor of Minas Gerais was more explicit: Hũa das mayores ruynas, que está ameaçando estas Minas, he a má qualide de gente de que ellas se vão enchendo… vay havendo nellas tam grande quantide de mulatos.… confesso a VMagde, que será esta gente a mais pernicioza q’ pode haver nestes povos.… e seguro a VMagde que sendo os mulatos de todo o Brazil mto prejudicaes, por serem todos inquiettos, e revoltozos; estes das Minas hão de ser muito peyores, por terem circunstas de ricos. A rrezão porque nestas Minas há, e vay havendo tanta quantide de mulatos, he porq’ nellas não há outra casta de molheres, senão negras, e se VMagde for servido mandar que das terras da marinha deste Brasil, ou das Ilhas, aonde há muyta quantide de cazaes pobrissimos, venham quantos forem possiveis transportarse pa estas Minas, necessariamente hão de haver mtos cazados com as familias, que trouxerem os tais cazaes …’, Vila Rica 20 April 1722, idem, fols 110–11.

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  16. Dom João de Lencastre to king, Salvador 18 June 1695 and the royal reply of 19 November 1695, see A.J. R. Russell-Wood, Fidalgos and Philanthropists. The Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Bahia, 1550–1755 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968) p. 178. Letter of 18 October 1781, referred to in Castro e Almeida, Inventário, II, doc. 10907.

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  17. ‘e se VMagde lhe não pozer toda a prohibição, supp° que toda a mer do Brasil será freira…’, Almeida to king, 19 April 1722, Vila Rica, APMSG, vol. 23, fols. 109–10. On convents and retirement houses see Russell-Wood, ‘Female and Family’, pp. 91–3, and Susan A. Soeiro, ‘The Social and Economic Role of the Convent: Women and Nuns in Colonial Bahia, 1677–1800’, HAHR, LIV: 2 (May 1974) 209–32.

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  18. On Portugal, see Russell-Wood, ‘Iberian Expansion’, pp. 21–2; general studies are Manuel Heleno, Os escravos em Portugal (Lisbon, 1933)

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  19. and Antonio Brásio, Os prêtos em Portugal (Lisbon, 1944).

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  20. Le Gentil de la Barbinais, Nouveau voyage au tour du monde par Monsieur Le Gentil. Enrichi de plusieurs plans, vues et perspectives des principales villes & ports du Pérou, Chily, Bresil, & de la Chine, 3 vols (Paris, 1927) vol, 3, p. 204.

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  21. Cited by C. R. Boxer, Salvador de Sa and the Struggle for Brazil and Angola, 1602–1686 (London, 1952) p. 23. ‘E porquanto a mayor parte dos moradores dessas terras não tratão de cazarse pella soltura e liberdade com q’ nellas se vive, não sendo facil a coação para q’ se apartem do concubinatto das negras e das mullatas, e por esta cauza se vão maculando as famillias todas…’, king to Dom Lourenço, 27 January 1726, APMSG, vol. 29, doc. 17. On 20 April 1722 the governor suggested to the king that a law prohibit inheritance by a mulatto from his own father, APMSG, vol. 23, fols 110v–111.

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  22. APB, ‘Ordens régias’, vol. 14, doc. 12; vol. 34, doc. 137; vol. 91, fols 335–36v; vol. 94, fols 34–5; vol. 95, fols 158–60; APMSG, vol. 14, fol. 13 inter alia. The crown did not heed the warnings of Luís Cesar de Meneses (especially that of 11 December 1705 directed to the queen), governor-general 1705–10, of the falsity of such petitions, APB, ‘Ordens régias’, vol. 7, docs 288–300. Studies of manumission practices in the colony are still in their infancy, but the reader may consult Stuart B. Schwartz, ‘The Manumission of Slaves in Colonial Brazil: Bahia, 1684–1745’, HAHR, LIV: 4 (November 1974) 603–35, a study of 1160 slaves manumitted in 1015 cartas de alforria;

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  23. Katia M. de Queirós Mattoso, ‘A propósito de cartas da alforria na Bahia, 1779–1850’, Anais de história, IV (1972) 23–52, and ‘Os escravos na Bahia no alvorecer do século xix (estudo de um grupo social)’, RHSP, XLVIII: 97 (January–March 1974) 109–35; Herbert S. Klein, ‘The Colored Freedman’; Degler, Neither Black nor White, pp. 39–47.

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  24. A point of comparison to Spanish America is provided by Lyman L. Johnson, ‘Manumission in Colonial Buenos Aires, 1776–1810’, HAHR, LIX: 2 (May 1979) 258–79.

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  25. Frederick P. Bowser, The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524 – 1650 (Stanford, 1974), p. 138; see also on hiring practices, pp. 103–5, 126–8, 136–9, 307–8.

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  26. For descriptions see Ott, Formação, I, 139–46, and Luís da Câmara Cascudo, Dicionário do folclore brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro, 1954). Regius professor of Greek in Salvador, Luís dos Santos Vilhena, sourly noted that such foods were ‘optimos muitos delies pelo seu aceyo, para tomar por vomitorios’, Recopilação de noticias soteropolitanas e brasilicas, contidas em xx cartas, que da cidade do Salvador Bahia de Todos os Santos escreve hum a outro amigo em Lisboa, 2 vols (Salvador, 1922) I, 131.

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  27. On 15 December 1708 the councillors asked the king for such a law, suggesting the following: no slave woman should wear silk or cambric, nor lace touched with silver — a ruling applying to all persons regardless of sex and regardless if they were black or mulatto slaves; free mulatto males could wear silk stockings and clothing of taffety, but neither silver nor gold buttons; neither prostitutes nor men of the ‘mechanical classes’ could ride in litters (serpentinas); only men could ride in open carriages or litters, whereas women of questionable repute should have closed carriages, AMB, vol. 176, fol. 79. The royal order was contained in a letter of 23 September 1709 to Luís Cesar de Meneses, APB, ‘Ordens régias’, vol. 7, doc. 616. Earlier crown prohibitions on slaves’ use of silks or luxurious clothes included king to governor of Rio de Janeiro, 20 February 1696, ANRJ, Códice 952, vol. 8, fol. 41. A later alvará of 5 October inveighed against the luxury of Angolan customs (APB, ‘Ordens régias’, vol. 40, doc. 25a), and this was reissued on 24 May 1749. This was modified in 1751, permitting wearing of buttons, lace, and veils provided these were not of foreign manufacture (APB, ‘Ordens régias’, vol. 50, fols 28–38. See also Vilhena, Recopilação de noticias, I, 47–8 and Frézier, A Voyage to the South-Sea (London, 1717) p. 304.

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  28. Manoel da Silveira Cardozo, ‘The Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Lisbon’, RHSP, L: 100 (1974) 217–55, especially 236–7.

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  29. On Olinda, see René Ribeiro, Religião e relações raciais (Rio de Janeiro, 1956), p. 68. I am indebted to the reverend canon Manuel Barbosa for allowing me to consult the ‘Compremissio da Virgem Sanctissima May de Deus N.S. do Rosario dos pretos da Praia. 1686’, ch. 16: ‘Ordenamos, os Irmaos comfrades da Irmandade de N. Sra do Rosario que estando a dita Irmandade augmentada de bens bastantes e querendo algum Irmão comfrade da dita Irmandade libertarçe pedindo em meza aos ditos Irmaõs de emprestimo algum dr°, selhe darâ sobre pinhores ou fiador abonado alias não dando os ditos pinhores, nem fiador abonado não tera a Irmandade poder pa lhos poder emprestar, e haverão pro Lca, de S. Illma‘ (ACPB). In a letter of 12 January 1685 to the governor in Rio de Janeiro, the king noted: ‘Por parte dos Irmãos da Sra do Rozario e Resgate dessa Capitania se me reprezentou aqui terem alguns Irmãos Cativos, em algũas cazas com ruim cattiveiro, e por alguns delles se acharẽ com bastante resgatte para se libertarem, o não podia fazer a ditta Irmandade sem licensa minha …’, ANRJ, Códice 952, vol. 3, fol. 202.

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  30. Perdigão Malheiro, A escravidão no Brasil Ensaio histórico, jurídico, social, 2 vols, 3rd edn (Petrópolis, 1976) vol. 1, p. 38. On manumission societies in Salvador, see Verger, Flux et reflux, pp. 515–21. Interestingly enough many of the same needs were felt post-abolition,

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  31. see John F. Bratzel and Daniel M. Masterson, ‘O Exemplo: Afro-Brazilian Protest in Pôrto Alegre’, The Americas, XXXIII: 4 (April 1977) 585–92.

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  32. ASCMB, vol. 42, fol. 204. For other examples, see Russell-Wood, Fidalgos and Philanthropists, pp. 182–3, and sources to which should be added ASCMB, vol. 41, fols 37–38v and 70–79. For a 1585 carta de libertad in Mexico, see Stella Risley Clemence, ‘Deed of Emancipation of a Negro Woman Slave, Dated Mexico, September 14, 1585’, HAHR, X: 1 (February 1930) 51–7.

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  33. Ernesto Ennes, As guerras nos Palmares (subsídios para a sua história) (São Paulo, 1938) and ‘The Palmares “Republic” of Pernambuco, its Final Destruction, 1697’, The Americas, V: 2 (October 1948) 200–16;

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  34. Edison Carneiro, O quilombo dos Palmares, 3rd edn (Rio de Janeiro, 1966);

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  35. R. K. Kent, ‘Palmares: An African State in Brazil’, Journal of African History, VI: 2 (1965) 161–75;

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  36. Stuart B. Schwartz, ‘The Mocambo: Slave Resistance in Colonial Bahia’, Journal of Social History, III, 4 (Summer 1970) 313–33.

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  37. Edict of 20 December 1717, Vila Rica, APMSG, vol. 11, fol. 269; APB, ‘Ordens régias’, vol. 65, fols 185–6v. On quilombos in Minas Gerais, see ‘Cartas do conde de Assumar ao rei de Portugal sobre os quilombos e castigo delles’, Revista do Archivo Público Mineiro, III (1898) 251–66; Francisco Antonio Lopes, Ospalácios de Vila Rica. Ouro Preto no ciclo do ouro (Belo Horizonte, 1955) pp. 125–9.

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  38. See also Miguel Costa Filho, ‘Quilombos’, Estudos sociais, III: 1 March 1960) 334–60; 9 (October 1960) 95–109; 10 (July 1961) 233–47,

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  39. and Clovis Moura, Rebeliões da senzala. Quilombos, insurreições, guerrilhas (Rio de Janeiro, 1972).

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  40. Maria Luiza Marcilio, ‘Evolução da população brasileira através dos censos até 1872’, Anais de história, VI (1974) 115–37;

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  41. José Honório Rodrigues, Brasil e Africa: Outro horizonte, 2nd. edn, 2 vols (Rio de Janeiro, 1964), vol. 1, pp. 53–4; Mauricio Goulart, Escravidão africana, pp. 139–71. Population figures for 1786, 1805, 1808 and 1821 published in the Revista do Archivo Público Mineiro, IV (1899) 294–6 differ slightly from those for 1821 in von Eschwege, Pluto brasiliensis, pp. 595–6.

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  42. See the tables in Kenneth Maxwell, Conflicts and Conspiracies: Brazil and Portugal, 1750–1808 (Cambridge, 1973) pp. 263–6. See also Ianni, As metamorfoses, pp. 45, 70, 84–95; Thales de Azevedo, Povoamento da Cidade, pp. 181–201; Cardoso and Ianni, Cor e mobilidade social, pp. 78–93; Cardoso, Capitalismo e escravidão, pp. 41–3;

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  43. Luiz R. B. Mott, ‘Pardos e pretos em Sergipe, 1774–1851’, Revista do Instituto de estudos brasileiros, XVIII (1976) 7–37 and his earlier ‘Brancos, pardos, pretos a índios em Sergipe, 1825–1830’, Anais de história, VI (1974) 139–84; Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, XXVIII: 1 (1865) 123–7 and XXXIII: 1 (1870) 135–42;

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  44. Marcílio, La ville de São Paulo. Peuplement et population 1750–1850 (Rouen, 1972) p. 117 et seq.; Schwartz, ‘Manumission’, pp. 608–19; Klein, ‘Colored Freedmen’, p. 34 and table 1. Herculano Gomes Mathias published Um Recenseamento na capitania de Minas Gerais, Vila Rica — 1804 (Rio de Janeiro, 1969). The best general survey for the colonial period remains Alden, ‘The Population of Brazil’, especially pp. 196–9.

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  45. Johann Baptist von Spix and C. F. P. von Martius, Reise in Brasilien in den Jahren 1817–1820 (3 vols, Munich, 1823–31), vol. 2, p. 639.

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    A. J. R. Russell-Wood (Professor of History)

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© 1982 A. J. R. Russell-Wood

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Russell-Wood, A.J.R. (1982). Paths to Freedom. In: The Black Man in Slavery and Freedom in Colonial Brazil. St Antony’s/Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16866-8_2

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