Next year sees the 120th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Brazil. Some contemporary writers saw the period as an horrific maltreatment of our fellow human beings while others saw through this and viewed the patriarchal and familial advantages that society, especially slaves received. Whichever way one sees it, the period before its abolition saw a huge boost in Brazil’s economy, mainly down to its vast manpower – 37% of all African slaves traded – a massive 3 million men, women and children.
This paper is will explore the differences in the treatment of slaves in Latin America and North America and compare these systems to underground slavery today.
The transatlantic slave trade was a primary structuring force of brazilian society. When Brazil became independent in 1822 from portugal, the slave trade was perceived as a dominant activity in the country's economy because it involved so much formation and investments. Slavery played a significant role in the structure of Brazil considering that the system of involuntary labor was the biggest and most extended of all the slave societies in the Atlantic world. This molded Brazilian ways of life including jobs, transportation, economic concerns, political factors and culture in many ways.
“Slavery,” this word evokes images of West Africans picking cotton in the Southern United States or a kneeling man in chains asking, ”Am I not a man and brother.” These conventional ideas of slavery dominate both the public perception of enslavement and scholarship. However, a new voice entered the examination of slavery: Andrés Reséndez. In The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America, Reséndez challenges the conventional definition of slavery. Reséndez presents a systemic study of Indian slavery through the impact of enslavement on the decimation of Native American tribes, the complex relationships racial between Native American tribes as well as the Spanish, and the continued implications of Indian enslavement
How did American slavery compare and contrast with slavery in Latin America? Was slavery in these two places mainly similar? Were there differences worth noting? Were demographics a large part of the differences? Which place was the most oppressive? Which was more benign in slave conditions? Although, I feel slavery, in any form, is reprehensible, I would like to discuss major differences between these two places pertaining to the work performed, the treatment of slaves, and the rights afforded to each.
Because certain forms of slavery had existed for centuries on the continent of Africa, Brazilian historians used to say that blacks imported from across the Atlantic were docile and ready to accept their new status as slaves. This assertion is based on the unwarranted assumption that was true of a limited area of Africa was typical of the continent as a whole.
During Brazil’s first few decades of colonialism, the Portuguese decided that to control the population they would directly enslave them. Captured native people were the ones that labored on the first sugar mills. Native slavery was abolished in Brazil in the 1570s but exceptions were made if a Native was captured during “just war”. Although a loophole existed that allowed for Natives to still be enslaved, by the 1590s it didn’t matter because they were
Slavery as it existed in colonial Brazil contained interesting points of comparison and contrast with the slave system existing in British North America. The slaves in both areas had been left with very little opportunity in which he could develop as a person. The degree to which the individual rights of the slave were either protected or suppressed provides a clearer insight to the differences between North American and Brazilian slavery. The laws also differed greatly between the two areas and have been placed into three categories: term of servitude, police and disciplinary powers, and property and other civil rights.
Before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th cent., the Araucanians had long been in control of the land in the southern part of the region; in the north, the inhabitants were ruled by the Inca empire. Diego de Almagro, who was sent by Francisco Pizarro from Peru to explore the southern region, led a party of men through the Andes into the central lowlands of Chile but was unsuccessful (1536) in establishing a foothold there. In 1540, Pedro de Valdivia marched into Chile and, despite stout resistance from the Araucanians, founded Santiago (1541) and later established La Serena, Concepción, and Valdivia. After an initial period of incessant warfare with the natives, the Spanish
. Before the first Africans arrived in British North America in 1619, more than half a million African captives had already been transported and enslaved in Brazil. By the end of the nineteenth century, that number had risen to more than 4 million. Northern European powers soon followed Portugal and Spain into the transatlantic slave trade. The majority of African captives were carried by the Portuguese, Brazilians, the British, French, and Dutch. British slave traders alone transported 3.5 million Africans to the Americas.
Prior to its independence Latin America had been controlled by external forces for hundreds of years. To be freed of control from these outside interests did not in any way guarantee Latin America a return to the status quo. In fact, the inhabitants of Latin America had done very well in assimilating their in house controllers. They adopted European language, religion, color, and just about everything else that the European culture had to offer them. Although they were free to do as they please and run their own affairs in the global neighborhood as we know it, they struggled to create an entity for themselves. They embody too much of what is not native to their region, yet the people that used to represent their land 500 years earlier
were able to have a social life as the whites really did not care what they did with their own
The Shipwreck Shines Light on Historic Shift in Slave Trade showed a historic shift of the Portuguese slave trade in December 1794. It reveal according to the National Geographic, “More than 400 men, women, and children lay shackled in the ship’s hold, their fates bound to the merciless law of supply and demand.” The Portuguese slave traders of Africa had their vessel ready to partake of a trying journey. The 7000-mile journey from Mozambique was on a high turbulence of waters crossing the Atlantic to Brazil. This was a high risk and based on a financial gain.
African Americans endured a great deal of hardships because of the Portuguese settlers. In order to increase the population in Brazil, the Portuguese sexually abused African Americans and mixed race women. Telles explains, “…mixed-race Brazilians were largely spawned through sexual violence throughout the period of slavery, although cohabitation and marriage between whites and non-whites was not uncommon” (Telles 2004: 25). Although, some women in Brazil agreed to marriage with Portuguese men, the majority did not approve of the idea. Whether the non-white women agreed or disagreed they still had the children of the Europeans. Through the misery, Brazil gained their independence. After the Portuguese migrated out of Brazil to Europe, Brazil began to develop their own country. In hopes of gaining their freedom after the Portuguese migrated from Brazil, they did not receive equality, but discrimination and racism within the society.
In order to talk about the abolition of slavery it is necessary to know the meaning of slavery and abolition. According to Dictionary.com the word “Slave means: a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person and abolition means: “the legal prohibition and ending of slavery, especially of slavery of blacks in the U.S.” Now that both words were defined we can begin. “It is said that the first African slaves were brought to the United States near the English Colony back in 1619 to Jamestown, Virginia by some Dutch traders. If we were to discuss the origins of slavery we would have to start not in the United States, but we would have to shift gears to Brazil were they were the biggest slaves traders of all times” according to History.net