2. Background to
Slavery in Brazil
• Pedro I comes to power in 1822.
• While other countries are declared republics, Brazil
became a monarchy, and remained a slave-owning
country.
• Pedro believed in “the Brazilian people”, which
included all those born in Brazil, but this did not
apply to slaves (Chasteen 102).
Image source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/448591/Pedro-I
3. Background to
Slavery in Cuba
• Cuba remains a Spanish colony.
• Cuban sugar plantations imported a number of
slaves when slavery was abolished in Jamaica,
Barbados, and other sugar-growing islands
(Chasteen 134).
• Slave labor was necessary to the economy, and
became a highly-capitalized industry.
Image source: http://www.melfisher.org/exhibitions/lastslaveships/cuba.htm
4. The Liberal Agenda
• Liberalism was “based on the belief that human
progress is best achieved by unleashing the energies
of the individual human being” (Wood and
Chasteen 83).
• Liberalism relied on the idea of capitalism and free
enterprise. The idea of slavery would not fit this
ideal, but in practice, many liberals see the idea of
free enterprise only applying to free white males,
and not to slaves.
5. The Economics of
Slavery
• The idea of liberal individualism matched the idea
of free enterprise.
• Slaves were unpaid, free labor, and paying workers
was a lot more expensive than having to pay
workers, cutting into profits of the landowners.
• Legal equality was the basis of liberalism, but
slaves were not considered equal, even in the eyes
of liberals in Brazil and Cuba.
6. Why does Slavery remain
in Brazil and Cuba?
• Slavery remains in Brazil and Cuba because the
liberal agenda is not strong in either country, and
many were clinging to colonial ideals.
• In Brazil, Pedro I was prince of Portugal, while
Cuba remained a Spanish colony. The countries
were tied to traditions, and would not allow for the
liberal agenda to permeate the political agenda.
• Brazil was considered too “backward” for
liberalism (Chasteen 173).
7. Gertrudis Gómez
de Avellaneda
• Avellaneda’s 1841 novel Sab was the literary
argument for the abolishment of slavery.
Compared to the United States novel Uncle Tom’s
Cabin.
• The novel was banned in Latin America, but was
widely read anyway.
• The novel was sentimental in the 1800s, telling the
love story between a black man and a white
8. Pedro II and the
Regent Years
• Pedro II was appointed ruler in 1831, when he was
5 years old. Until 1840, Brazil was ruled by a
regency council.
• Pedro II was installed as emperor at the age of 14.
• The regents had attempted liberal reforms, but
when Pedro II came to power, liberal reforms were
cancelled, and the imperial army was built back up.
Image source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/448600/Pedro-II
9. Pedro II’s
Philosophical Rule
• Pedro was a philosophical liberal, who traveled
extensively to the United States and Europe.
• Pedro had hoped that one day Brazil would not
need a monarchy or slaves, as the Brazilian elites
would embrace liberalism.
• Pedro had freed his own slaves in 1840, but made
little attempt for the complete abolishment of
slavery in Brazil.
10. The End of Slavery in
Cuba
• Cuba was still a Spanish-held colony, and, along
with Brazil, was one of the last slave-holding
countries.
• Spain abolished slavery in Cuba in 1886.
Image source: http://www.melfisher.org/exhibitions/lastslaveships/cuba.htm
11. The “Free Birth” law--
the beginning of the
end of slavery
• Passed in 1871, the law stated that slaves would
remain, but the children of slaves would be born
free.
• Slave law required that the “free” children must
work until adulthood for their parents’ master.
• Slave trade had ended around 1850, after the decree
had been issued in 1831, and the new law hoped to
end eventually end slavery.
12. The Abolishment of
Slavery in Brazil
• By 1886, after the end of slavery in Cuba, more
pressure was put on Brazil.
• Slaves were running away, and by 1887 a mere
7,488 slaves remained in Brazil, down from
100,000 in the late 1860s (Graham 108).
• Slavery was finally abolished in 1888.
13. Why did the Liberal
Agenda change
Slavery?
• Liberalism began as a notion of the free individual, but
elites in Brazil and Cuba would consider the free
individual as the free white man. Slaves would not be
considered.
• Conservative rule in Brazil, along with the colonial rule
in Cuba, would use slave labor to grow the economy.
• Brazilians were considered progressive, but when Cuba
abolished slavery, Brazil faced the shame of the rest of
other countries, and freed their slaves in 1888.
14. Conclusion
• Brazil’s monarchy had a grip on the political agenda.
While Pedro II was thought to be a liberal, his rule
wasn’t strong enough to abolish slavery. Elites in Brazil
embraced liberalism, but only as it applied to white
males.
• Cuba was still under Spanish rule, and only abolished
slavery when Spain did so.
• Economic factors were driving factors against slavery,
with plantation owners seeing big profits from slave labor.
• Brazil’s “free trade” law would eventually lead to the end
of slavery, but it would take 17 years.
15. Works Cited
• Chasteen, John Charles, Born in Blood and Fire: A
Concise History of Latin America (New York: WW
Norton and Company, 2011).
• Graham, Sandra Lauderdale, House and Street: The
Domestic World of Servants and Masters in Nineteenth-
Century Rio de Janeiro (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1988).
• Wood, James A. and John Charles Chasteen,
editors, Problems in Modern Latin American History:
Sources and Interpretations (Lanham: Rowman and
