Jeffrey Boakye
Micheal Grove
FIQWS Composition 10103
December 9, 2019
Slavery And How It Affected Brazil
Many slaves achieved their freedom by using their horrible situation in bondage to motivate them enough to prove their worth to themselves and to others . By examining great leaders such as and Luis Gama and Antonio Pereira Rebouças of Brazil, one can see how they embodied the drive that african americans needed in order to gain their freedom . Thus, this paper serves to show how although slaves went through terrible conditions and faced severe injustice , their circumstances motivated them to push for their freedom and embrace their identity.
Slaves were very important to Brazil in the eighteen and nineteen century. Slave labor was the major force behind the growth of many economies in Brazil such as the Sugar economy and many more. Klein and Vidal shows us how useful slaves were to the economy in their book Slavery In Brazil when they say “Slaves are the hands and feet of the senhor do engenho for without themBrazil could not make, conserve, or expand its resources, nor have a viable plantation system.This famous affirmation of Padre Antonil made at the beginning of the eighteenth century could not be more true and need not be restricted to the senhores de engenho(or sugar mill planters). They were the basic labor for the majority, even of the free population, which depended on their services. In all the economic activities developed in Brazil until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, slaves were the essential labor force.’’ ( Klein and Vidal 115)This shows how Slavery had great benefit to Brazil but on the other hand was not right and wasn’t fair to the Slaves involved.
During the nineteenth century , being a slave was a living hell.Slaves were considered property, because they were black. Their status as property was further enforced by violence from white people .Slaves lived in unbearable conditions and lived by slave codes.These codes consisted of specific curfews ,restriction of education and more limitations on their rights..Treatment was generally characterized by brutality, degradation, and inhumanity. Whippings, executions, and rapes were a routine, and slaves were usually denied educational opportunities, such as learning how to read or write.The diets of enslaved people were inadequate or barely adequate to meet the demands of their heavy workload. They lived in crude quarters that left them vulnerable to bad weather and disease. Their clothing and bedding were minimal as well. According to an article by Eunice Masunungure, “The slaves stayed in cabins, which were dilapidated, windowless and earth floors.According to Murray (1971): “One Mississippi planter made his 150 Negroes live in twenty-four huts each measuring 16 feet by 14 feet, sleeping on beds made of straw with old rags thrown down in the corners and boxed with boards.”Those with ‘better’ bedding slept on mattresses of corn husks. They covered themselves with a single blanket, even in extreme weather conditions” ( Masunungure). This shows how indeed slaves were going through harsh conditions and evil treatment.She points out and lays emphasis on how these slaves were being housed , the bad weather conditions they were dealing with them and how they were being fed. This shows how slaves facing this bad treatment affected them.she further continues to describe their condition after all this treatment. “Since living conditions were appalling, several died from neonatal tetanus, gangrene, pleurisy, pneumonia and rheumatism.There was no proper medication for slaves.The slave masters thought that poor diet would actually keep the slaves from committing crime.” This clearly highlights the nightmare slaves lived in. Williams, Mary Wilhelmine tells us more about the treatment of these slaves and the maltreatment they went through in her book in “7 The few wagons that were seen on the streets were usually drawn by slaves un- til towards the middle of the nineteenth century, but most of the burdens were carried by means of poles resting across the shoulders of the slaves, or-especially in the case of coffee, though each sack weighed one hundred and sixty pounds-upon the heads.8 Such heavy burden-bearing often raptured the carriers, crippled them severely in the legs, or otherwise wrecked them physically.9”(Williams,317)This shows how slaves suffered and weren’t treated right which affected them .
Going through all these harsh conditions and unimaginable work demand, the only prayer every slave wished for was freedom because freedom meant an end to the beatings and harsh punishments , to the sale of family members, and the infringement of their human rights. These slaves realized that the only way they could make a change about their situation is that they make an effort in every single way they can. Some slaves sought to gain their freedom through manumission, escape, or by their own way they wished to demand their freedom. Sue Peabody and Kelia Gringberg stated that, “It would be a mistake to see Freedom primarily as something that was “handed down” by colonial or european elites to slaves .Slaves sought,negotiated for,and demand their freedom both individually and collectively as can be seen in these documents.Maroons escaped their enslavement and engaged in guerrilla welfare. Enslaved women publicly shamed their masters for sexual abuse and breach of contract in lawsuits for freedom”( Peabody and Grinberg Pg 26 ) .This emphasizes on the point that slaves ought to fight for their freedom in their own way and make a effort to get themselves out of their own situations. Peabody and Grinberg points out the fact that in order for slaves to gain their freedom they also had to make their voices heard .They start by stating the fact that freedom isn’t going to come to them but instead they have to gain it such as when they talked about the Maroons and Enslaved women . This shows how they were able to prove their worth to themselves and even when they were facing terrible conditions and faced severe injustice , their circumstances motivated them to push for their freedom and embrace their identity.
Slaves and other people other rose up to fight to get their freedom. Some slaves used their advantage of acquiring knowledge and used this knowledge to stop slavery .One slave who used his oratorical and intellectual abilities to pave a way for the end of freedom was Luis Gama . Luis Gama was the son of Luisa Mahin who was a free African woman of “Mina” nation who sold foodstuff in the city market. In 1840, when Gama was 10 years old, his papa sold him illegally, allegedly because of gambling debts but Luis Gama ended up being one of the most successful abolitionist of his time who impacted Brazils slavery system with his role in the abolitionist movement and freeing more than one thousand slaves.Gama was born a slave in 1830, in Bahia . He educated himself and became determined to make a change about slavery not only for himself but for all slaves. Toyin Ashiru gives us an insight of Gamas life as a slave by telling us in his blog “Gama stayed with his master for 8 years on an estate and learnt how to read and write from a students who rented rooms on the estate. In 1848 Gama escaped and managed to prove that his condition was illegal to justice courts thus becoming a free man.Once a free man he became a soldier in the Urban Guard a military police force where he stayed until 1858 until he was discharged for insubordination, after this he joined the police force and progressed to be the scribe at the Sao Paulo Police Secretariat” . This shows that although Gama was a slave and was going through terrible conditions and severe injustices, he used his circumstances to motivate him and push him to his freedom. They shows emphasis on his effort by showing how he made an extra effort to acquire knowledge even though he realized his ability when he was young he still made efforts to be taught although at that moment it was illegal for a slave to be educated.
Antonio Pereira Rebouças was also another individual who used his effort to push for his freedom and embrace their identity as african americans. Rebouças was also surely one of the best advocates in his time. In this case he also grew up in slavery and experienced these terrible conditions and severe injustices of his point was a great effort.Born as a slave in 1798 Born into the era were black people were like treated like property he found a determination to succeed and discovered many qualities in life. He suffered racism in much of the positions in which he held. He considered himself different from other browns for his achievements and fought for his civil rights. Rebouças wasn’t able to receive an Education at a certain time because it was illegal for him to receive but he still didn’t let this get in his way to acquire knowledge , he continued to strive freedom because he was determined to educate himself .In a biography about Reboucas “André Pinto Rebouças was born in the town of Cachoeira, on the coast of Bahia, on 3 January 1838, the oldest son of Antônio Pereira Rebouças and Carolina Pinto Rebouças.Despite racial prejudice, his father, a mulatto, was an important and prestigious man at the time. Self-taught to read and write, he had been granted the right to practice law throughout the country, represented Bahia in the House of Representatives on a range of legislature, was secretary of the Provincial Governorship of Sergipe, advisor to the Empire, and had received the title of Knight of the Imperial Order of the cross in 1823.” (Lúcia Gaspar.) This shows how took his education seriously and it benefitted his son although he had to go through bad circumstances instead he used this to motivate him to because he knew that this was what go get him towards his goal for african Americans. The author goes on to talk about how he used this knowledge to leave a legacy for afrcan american identity.
Overall, no rational person would wish to be a slave so slaves became active agents in their own lives because their freedom depended on them. And though their lives were confined in many significant ways, but they sought to make the best of their circumstances. They succeeded to a remarkable extent, a testimonial to the endurance of the human spirit.This connects to the idea that although slaves went through terrible conditions and faced severe injustice,their circumstances motivated them to make a change for themselves and their people , to push for their freedom and embrace their identity
