Slaves and Social Protest in Brazil, 1780-1850

"Of the twelve million or more slaves forcibly shipped from Africa to the New World almost 40% arrived in Brazil, which was also the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888. This paper examines the various survival strategies adopted by slaves in Brazil between 1780 and 1850 and argues that the adoption of one survival strategy rather than another reflected a realistic assessment of the chances of success at a particular point in time rather than a permanent identity or state of mind. In this context, therefore, conjuncture and opportunity were all important. Moreover slave strategies were complex and involved – sometimes simultaneously – elements of both ‘accommodation’ and ‘resistance’. Some were individual, ranging from the purchase of freedom (manumission) on the part of both light-skinned, skilled male creole slaves and African females, and litigation, through petty insubordination to flight, arson, murder and - in the case of women slaves – ‘gynaecological resistance’. Others were collective and resembled the protests of European workers: strikes, go-slows and equivalents of Luddism. The most distinctive and spectacular forms of slave protest, however, were the formation of ‘maroon societies’ (communities of fugitive slaves), which were endemic throughout Brazil in this period, and armed rebellion. Both were informed by African and Afro-Brazilian cultures and commonly witnessed conflict between slaves born in Africa and those born in Brazil (creoles). Slave insurrections were also frequent and were subdued by not only the white elite but the numerous freed people of colour in Brazil, some of whom has become slave owners, slave hunters and even slave traders."