Africans in Brazil
From Brazil and the Brazilians by George James Bruce, 1915.
From: 1583 C.E. To: 1915 C.E.
Location: Brazil
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Brazil and the Brazilians by George James Bruce, 1915.
African blacks were first brought into Brazil as slaves in 1583. These were said to be recruited in the Portuguese colonies of Angola, and Upper Guinea principally; but close observation discloses that the slave-traders of the early days must have gone much further afield. Amongst the descendants of these slaves, anyone acquainted with the African races can to-day pick out those who are indisputably descended from Bechuana, Hottentot, Kafir, Basuto, and Makalanga people, as well as from Mocambique Shangans and Guinea negroes. A study of their customs and peculiarities will support this.
You will find Kafir descendants in Rio and Bahia to-day singing the same songs, telling the same stories, and preferring the food that the Kafirs of Kaffraria enjoy. You meet the wizened little Hottentot, with his "coraltjes" and strong love for horses, that can be seen in Capetown. We can see the industrious Basuto cultivating his little plot of ground in the approved style of his brother at the foot of the Drakenbergs; and the lordly Makalanga, "child of the rising sun," haughty yet in the race pride that keeps him from intermarrying with children of his long-conquered foes. Change of air and country have made little difference in these children of the veldt and African forests. They are the same laughing happy people that evolved the dances and ragtime music destined to become the craze of London and New York mansions and variety theatres.
Upon the abolition of slavery in 1888 the freed slaves made for the cities in large numbers. In taking up the responsibilities of their new free life, they were handicapped by an inherited lack of initiative. Accustomed in their slavery to have food and clothes provided for them, in their freedom it was an irksome duty thrust on them. Little wonder was it then that these poor people were slow to adopt regular methods of livelihood. Sheer necessity eventually drove them back to the plantations and industries in which they had worked as slaves, to offer themselves again to their old masters for wages that were little better than slavery.
Many of these black people had, some years previous to their emancipation, been given plots of ground to cultivate, and were agriculturists and planters in a small way. To them freedom meant time to cultivate more land and produce more food, and they remained on their plots and improved them. Gradually the emancipated slaves were absorbed in a variety of menial occupations, where they were paid enough to keep soul and body together, but their experiences then were so bitter that the saying amongst black people, "the white man frees his slaves to get their work cheaper" arose.
An episode in the history of these Africans in Brazil should be recorded wherever they are written about. In the year 1630 certain slaves who had succeeded at different times in escaping from their masters, until they were hundreds in number, proclaimed a republic where they had taken refuge in the mountains of Barriga between Porto Calvo and Alagoas. The "quilombo" was called the Republic of Palmeiras. The leader was called the "Zumbi," signifying in the slaves' language, "pure soul become powerful." The black republicans cultivated areas of their land, but relied largely on the proceeds of raids on neighbouring plantations. They became so troublesome that military operations were frequently taken against them. The republic however resisted for sixty-nine years all attempts to suppress it. Finally it was overcome by a large combined force of men from Sao Paulo, Pernambuco, and Alagoas.
Bruce, George James. Brazil and the Brazilians. Methuen, 1915.
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