Essay On Slavery In Brazil

Afro-Brazilian Slavery

Colonization of Brazil dates back to the 15th century. Brazil was fertile and was mainly used for plantations. The Europeans relied on cheap labor from slaves, who were forcefully imported into the country. Some of the slaves came from Brazil but more than half were imported from Africa (Morn and Alicea, 2004). The forced migration of African slaves to Brazil is attributed to the expansion of the export sector in Brazil and the growth of Trans-Atlantic butter trade. The Africans were exchanged for other commodities and shipped to Brazil as laborers. The Portuguese merchants made this migration possible by opening up the Atlantic markets and organizing a slave-trading fleet (Klein and Luna, 2010). The slaves were mainly the Western Africans and the Bantus.

Forced migration of African laborers to Brazil was enhanced by the high demand of European products in the African markets and the high demand of laborers in the high demand of European plantations in Brazil. The

Africans served as the trade commodities themselves and were exchanged for European goods. The sold slaves were then shipped to Brazil shores across the Atlantic Ocean and the number Africans in Brazil increased with time. Approximately, the number of African slaves who crossed the Atlantic Ocean safely from the late 15th century until the late 19th century is 4.8 million (Klein and Luna, 2010). Though the European countries reaped much from slavery, it had dehumanized many and individuals, groups and some governments started campaigning for its abolition.
Abolition of slavery in Brazil campaigns started in 1888. This involved intellectuals, governments and different social groups such as the church. All these groups had a common message that slavery is unnecessary evil and had to be abolished in Brazil. These groups used different approaches to convince people that slavery is inhuman and anti-parallel to Brazilian culture. For example, the intellectuals warned of slavish imitation of European culture.
The intellectual used literature to spread their ideas. Literature seemed to be the most ideal to impart positivism to the countrymen. Intellectuals such as Ailvio Romero Joao Capistrano de Abreu argued that Brazil was suffering mainly from slavish imitation of foreign culture. Romero challenged countrymen to demonstrate intellectual independence rather than copying everything from foreign minds. This made Brazilians to understand that European culture was not superior to theirs. In addition, Romero spread the thought Brazil was not a product of Portuguese but combined efforts of Europeans, Indians and Africans. In this, Romero proved that Brazil could not develop before reforming the agrarian institutions by redistributing the land and abolishing slavery.
The spread of positivism in Brazil was also aided the French founder of positivism, Augaste Comte, intellectuals such as Argentine Domingo Faistino Sarmiento, the writers such as Joaquim Maria Machado, Raul de Avila and sociologists such as Rio de Jeneiro.

Most of these used literature such as poems and other forms of literature to depict the evils of slavery. The elites especially in the cities became essential players in civilizing others. In a first step, the intellectuals passed their ideas to university and secondary students who in turn influenced the countrymen more rapidly. The countrymen welcomed positivism warmly. The first positivist ideas were appeared in Brazil in 1850 among the students and graduates of technical and military schools. Positivism was a critical tool for the progress and became the base of philosophy in Brazil. Its socio-economic fruits were witnessed in the 19th century, with Africans getting access to freedom and privileges enjoyed by the

whites.
Abolishing slavery in Brazil also involved spiritual struggles. For example, Allan Kardec gave the fundamentals of existence and human spirituality. In his book, O que é o Espiritismo Kardec explains the origin of man, earthly suffering, and his destiny and encourages people to endure suffering. In summary, Kardec urges people to have faith in God and casts the hope of overcoming troubles while on earth. This was very critical during the colonial period as it helped fostered the sense of religiosity among the slaves. Catholicism also exploded in Brazil.
Catholicism among the Afro-Brazilians was spread by catholic leaders among the slaves. Most of the priests were African slaves who were captured during the trans-Atlantic trade. These considered it important to convert the slaves while under their painful states. Conversion to Christianity was a way of fulfilling religious obligations. The priests believed that Christianity would make the slaves more submissive to their Portuguese. Due to this, the Africans were forced to abandon their modes of worship back in Africa.
Many African slaves practiced Christianity in public but continued to worshiping their gods secretly. These Africans passed their religious practices to others. Some of such religious practices include Candombe, Umbanda and Macumba. Though these African religions were passed to others secretly, they became popular among the Brazilians and still exist today in Brazil.