Brazil
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The movement spread like wildfire across what are today the states of Pará and Amazonas. The government’s reaction to such ‘audacity’ was to dispatch four warships to Belém in February 1836 with instructions to take the city. On 13 May the imperial troops regained control of the area. This did not, however, stop the revolt. Between 1836 and 1840 the rebels penetrated the interior of the province and their demands became more radical: the end of slavery and the establishment of local autonomy. They also reaffirmed their hatred of the Portuguese and all other foreigners. During the next ten months the local elite lived in terror of the cabanos gaining control. Hidden in the forests, the rebels fought on until 1840, at which point they were entirely exterminated. The loss of life was appalling, estimated at between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the population, at the time numbering 100,000. Thousands were also taken prisoner and loaded into the imperial navy’s corvettes – especially the Denfensora – which were transformed into prison ships.
Although a few of the cabanos, strange as it may seem, maintained a mysterious loyalty to the young emperor, Pedro II, the vast majority demanded a political alternative to the centralized Brazilian Empire. Although they called themselves ‘patriots’, the term referred neither to being Brazilian nor to the government’s political and national plans. The indigenous peoples, the African slaves and mestizos, all of whom came from very different cultures, created new forms of identity that had little or nothing in common with the European model of the government in Rio de Janeiro.25 In fact, the conflict reflected an extreme situation of cross purposes: a combination of attitudes from the colonial past and the empire between 1822 and 1840 attempting to efface the enormous differences that existed in that region. Euclides da Cunha,26 a very influential Brazilian thinker, defined the Amazon as a region ‘on the margins of history’ and the cabanos (‘shack dwellers’) as representing the ‘increasingly wider gap between the inhabitants of the interior and those of the coast’.27 Perhaps this was an alternative history, in conflict with that of the Brazilian Empire. In this case, the relationship seemed more like a litigious separation.
FROM FEIJÓ TO PEDRO DE ARAÚJO LIMA: A NEW AGENDA FOR THE REVOLTS
By 1837 the regent was finding himself increasingly isolated in Rio de Janeiro. His political support was so precarious that on 19 September he was forced to return to his home in São Paulo and resign, allegedly due to illness. His fall was the result of increasing pressure from the conservative opposition and of the revolts in the provinces. The regency passed to his political opponent Pedro de Araújo, the Marquis of Olinda, who had been minister for the empire since September 1837. The elections the following year confirmed Pedro de Araújo – whose temperament was the very opposite of that of the explosive Padre Diogo Antônio Feijó – as regent. Before he was confirmed in the post, Pedro de Araújo had founded the Colégio Pedro II, a school in Rio de Janeiro, which was soon to become the model for Brazilian education. Araújo Lima had also founded the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro in 1838, another institute that was to become a key element in the imperial policy of Dom Pedro II, and the Escola Militar in 1839. Nevertheless, at the time, the measures were not appreciated. It seemed superficial to give priority to such matters while there was the danger of the provinces in the extreme north and south of the country seceding from the Union.
Pedro de Araújo’s most significant measure was to put an end to the liberal policies of the previous regencies. The criminal prosecution code, which had conceded judicial autonomy to the provinces, was eliminated. And another constitutional amendment was drawn up, that of 12 May 1840. The objective was clear: to put an end to the autonomy of the provinces and municipalities and maintain the regents’ control, especially of the Judiciary. They wanted to halt the nationwide revolts once and for all. These were the ‘backward-looking’ measures of Pedro Araújo Lima’s government. But it was by no means easy to suppress the revolts that were breaking out, sprouting like mushrooms in the north, northeast and south of the country.
POLITICAL MOVEMENTS HAVE COLOUR: THE REVOLT OF THE MALÊS AND THE SABINADA
Although the 1824 Constitution declared all free men equal, including freed slaves, in practice the descendants of slaves were systematically excluded from all the benefits of society. Not by coincidence, during this period people of African descent began to take to the streets demanding to be included in the emerging new nation.
The turbulence began in Bahia – a province that traditionally aspired to political autonomy – with great popular support. In 1798, as has been seen, the Bahia conspiracy had contested the hegemony of the Portuguese Crown. The province had only recognized Brazil’s independence on 2 July 1823, almost a year after independence had been declared in Rio de Janeiro. Between 1820 and 1830 a series of revolts broke out. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the establishment of quilombos and the practice of candomblé became widespread and intertwined. In 1826, on the outskirts of Salvador, a group of slaves who had taken refuge in the Urubu quilombo started an uprising that provoked an outburst of violence. The aim was nothing less than to invade the town, murder the white population and free all the slaves. Government troops were quick to react, besieging the quilombo. The inhabitants resisted ferociously under the leadership of a woman, Zeferina, who confronted the invaders armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows. In the document, which registered the destruction of the Urubu quilombo, the word ‘candomblé’ appears for the first time. It was used by the Count of Ponte in his reference to the refuge of the rebel slaves.28 The revolt had been suppressed, but the governor of the province was left in no doubt about one thing: henceforth, in Bahia, religion would be a fundamental element of the political organization of the slave and former slave population.
What in other provinces – such as Minas Gerais – was merely a rumour became a reality in Bahia, with the slave revolt spreading terror throughout the province. The turbulence lasted throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. Between 1820 and 1840 the province was witness to military revolts, anti-Portuguese uprisings, rebellions demanding a federation, and crowds going on the rampage, with the destruction of public and private property. Poor people and slaves took a major part in them all, both in Salvador and in the towns of the Recôncavo. Between 1807 and 1835 the province’s slaves were responsible for an extraordinary sequence of large-scale revolts in the engenhos, on the plantations and in the fish markets, both in the capital and in the Recôncavo. These revolts had certain characteristics typical of slave struggles in Bahia: cooperation between rural and urban slaves; the concentration of large numbers of Africans from the same ethnic group, with a shared cultural and religious identity; and the involvement of the quilombos, whose number was rapidly increasing in the suburbs of Salvador, providing refuge for escaped slaves and vibrant centres for the practice of the African religions.29
In May 1807 a group of slaves sparked off a cycle of revolts in Bahia that were instigated by a concentration of rebels from a specific ethnic group – which may or may not have been joined by other groups – with a strong religious bond, Islam. The slaves that planned the 1807 uprising were Africans from the north of what is today Nigeria, a region occupied mainly by Hausa. They were prepared to take their revolt beyond the captaincy’s borders. The revolt began on 28 May, during the celebrations of Corpus Christi, when the slaves set fire to the customs house where the slaves imported from Africa were received, and to a church in the district of Nazaré. The idea was to distract the troops’ attention. The slaves would then invade the town from the quilombos on the outskirts of Salvador. But that was not all. The plan was to mobilize blacks and mulattoes, poison the white population, burn statues of saints in the public squares, and then proceed to Pernambuco to liberate the slaves of the Hausa ethnic group. The struggle would continue until all the whites were dead and an Islamic kingdom had been established in the interior of the region.30
However, before the revolt began the plans were denounced to the gover
nor. The punishments were harsh: the leaders were arrested, the slaves were sentenced to be whipped at the pillory, all African gatherings and festivities were outlawed, and the freedom of movement of freed slaves in Salvador and the Recôncavo region was forbidden. But a precedent had been established and the Hausa were well organized. After their defeat, large numbers escaped to quilombos, which were ever increasing in the forested areas around the city, where they bided their time until a new opportunity arose.
In 1814 the Hausa attacked again. During the second revolt they launched a series of attacks between February and April that grew more and more violent. The assaults were commanded from the quilombos, both in the Recôncavo and in the villages surrounding Salvador. In May the governor received another denunciation: the Hausa were planning to carry out the same plan that had failed in 1807. But this time they were better organized. They had supplied their arsenal with gunpowder, cane for making bows, and iron arrowheads, all concealed in the woods. Furthermore, unprecedented numbers of Africans from other ethnicities had joined the movement, including mulattoes and crioulos.31 32
Although the Hausa were defeated once again in 1814, the government’s victory could not conceal the fragility of the slave regime in Bahia. The slaves continued to rise up against their owners and the number of attacks increased, especially in the engenhos in the Recôncavo. In 1816, Santo Amaro, in the heart of Bahia’s Recôncavo region, was terrorized by a new revolt: for four days the town was attacked, engenhos were burned, and whites, and any blacks who refused to join the movement, were put to death. The uprising was rapidly suppressed but the terror it put into the hearts of the landowners was not so easily subdued.
In 1835, more than two decades after the first rebellion, the largest of the slave revolts broke out in Salvador.33 This time the attack came from inside the city, and it was terrifying. In the early hours of 25 January, groups of slaves and freemen armed with clubs, knives and working tools, fought soldiers and civilians in the streets for over three hours. Once again religion was an inextricable part of the revolt. Many of the rebels fought wearing abadás, the white tunics worn for prayer by African Muslims, and amulets inscribed with verses from the Koran and prayers for their protection.
The rebellion was led by the Sociedade dos Malês (Society of Malês) – the name by which the African Muslims in Salvador were known. Their motivation was both religious and political. Islam was exclusively an African religion in Brazil. It was not restricted to any ethnic group and thus had the potential to bring together slaves and freemen of different origins in the fight against slavery. It was a key factor in the mobilization and integration of the rebels due to its capacity to provide a common language and minimize the ethnic and cultural differences within the African community.
The Malê uprising was aimed at establishing Bahia for Africans and was meant to shake up the city of Salvador. The plan was not to occupy the city, but rather to create chaos with lightning attacks against army barracks, churches and government buildings. It observed the Islamic rules for military actions: the rebels did not invade private residences, kill slave-owners or set fire to the city. They only fought against the military forces that were sent against them. The Malês had high hopes for the revolt. They planned to descend on the Recôncavo region, where the majority of slaves were concentrated, and mobilize the captives on the sugar plantations.
The Malê uprising was not only the largest slave rebellion in Bahia, but the largest in Brazil. It was also the last. The rebels considered the 1835 revolt a slave rebellion; nonetheless, it turned into a conflict between religions and ethnicities, and between slaves, coopted by their owners, and rebels. Seventy rebels died during the confrontations and after their defeat around five hundred were punished with death, whipping or deportation.34 There were several reasons for the failure of the revolt: once again there were denunciations, the secret escaped, and the revolt was forced to begin before the established date. It was also weakened by the lack of unity between crioulos, pardos and Africans. But the decisive factor was the unity of their enemies. The entire free population of Bahia – white and mulatto, rich and poor – either through common interests or through fear, opposed the insurrection. But although the rebellion was suppressed, the idea that freedom from the condition of slavery was within their grasp lived on among the captives of Bahia.
The turbulence in Bahia continued, with the participation of the middle classes, the military and the poor urban population. Anti-Portuguese sentiment was strong due to the Portuguese monopoly on trade and on the highest posts in the government and in the army. The situation had become more critical with the 1834 amendment that limited the autonomy of the provinces and then again with Padre Diogo Antônio Feijó’s resignation from the regency in 1837.
With discontent at fever pitch, all that was needed was an event to trigger people’s anger. The poor were demanding greater participation in society, the military an increase in wages, and the middle classes greater control of commerce. The discontent brought together government employees, artisans, tradesmen, officers and soldiers, as well as freed slaves. They shared a common hatred of the Portuguese and common access to the urban space that was shared by rich and poor, whites and Africans, pardos and crioulos. The governor of the province was well aware of the climate and wrote to the newspapers warning that a ‘Tumult Party’35 which sympathized with the revolts in Pará and Rio Grande do Sul was being formed. But he assured the public there was no need for concern, as everything possible was being done to make sure the ‘Hydra didn’t raise its head’.36
But the Hydra did raise its head. On the evening of 6 November 1837, officials from the artillery corps – fearing the introduction of compulsory enlistment to fight against the separatist movement in the south (the farroupilhas) – left the São Pedro fort and occupied the surrounding areas. They were joined by civilians, including Francisco Sabino Vieira and João Carneiro da Silva Rego. The next day, having taken control of the city, they convened a special session of the Municipal Chamber where they passed an act legalizing the movement. This was the start of the Sabinada revolt, which took its name from one of its leaders, Francisco Sabino. A document was drawn up with 105 signatures, declaring the province ‘entirely and perfectly disconnected from the central government in Rio de Janeiro’ and henceforth ‘a free and independent state’. The convening of a Constituent Assembly was planned and the lawyer Inocêncio da Rocha Galvão was appointed president with Francisco Sabino as his first secretary. But since Inocêncio da Rocha Galvão was living in exile in the United Sates, Francisco Sabino became the de facto head of the province.
It is interesting to note that, a few days later, a new document – an amendment – was signed, this time by just twenty-nine people. It stated that independence of the province was only to last until the new emperor came of age. (Some people called the amendment ‘a slip of the pen’.) Thus, despite the declaration of autonomy, the movement was loyal to the monarchy and the future emperor. The movement highlighted two important aspects of the regency period: the deep-rooted desire in Bahia for autonomy and the support still felt for the mystique that surrounded the prince and the monarchy, even during times of crisis.
Meanwhile, Francisco de Souza Paraíso, the deposed president of the province, and his commander-at-arms, Luís da França Pinto Garcez, took refuge in the Recôncavo region, from where they began to mobilize troops, mainly from the National Guard. In March 1838 the imperial government ordered them to besiege the capital. Under siege, Salvador first suffered from lack of livestock, and then from the damage caused by a fire that broke out in the city. Demoralized by the lack of food, the rebel leaders declared a truce in return for impunity. Their petition fell on deaf ears. The repression that followed was severe, including the suspension of all the prisoners’ rights and many of the rebels being sent into exile. Francisco Sabino was captured on 22 March in the residence of the French consul.
The official reaction was, as always, exemplary. According
to official data, 1,258 rebels and 594 soldiers died in combat, and a further 2,989 rebels were captured, most of whom were imprisoned on-board ships belonging to the imperial navy. A total of 1,520 men were deported to Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul to await judgement, and all the freed slaves were deported to Africa.37 But a different destiny awaited Francisco Sabino. An imperial decree signed on 22 August 1840 declared an amnesty, and he was sent to Goiás where he became involved in local politics. He was later deported to Mato Grosso, where he died in 1846.38
It is not easy to understand a separatist revolt that brought together military officers, tradesmen, liberal professionals, slaves and freemen, and that was also loyal to the monarchy. Francisco Sabino himself was mulatto, a descendent of enslaved Africans, and that is why they made an example of him. Between 1798, the year of the Bahia conspiracy, and 1838, the year of the Sabinada, there had been forty years of revolts, slave uprisings, sackings and lootings in Bahia. The participation of slaves, blacks, pardos and free mulattoes in a province dominated by slavery shows that the revolts against the authorities were also a question of origin and colour.
THE GUERRA DOS FARRAPOS: A LONG AND PERSISTENT REVOLT ON THE COUNTRY’S SOUTHERN FRONTIER
Even with the end of the Sabinada rebellion, the regent could not sleep well: a new revolution in the south of Brazil had become a serious issue. The motives were the same; only the places had changed. There was condemnation for the concentration of power in the court, and there was support for the re-establishment of the autonomy of the provinces. The uprising is known as the war of the Farrapos – the ragamuffin war – or the Farroupilha revolution, because fighting first broke out between Brazilians loyal to the government and poverty-stricken rebels labelled farrapos (‘ragamuffins’) due to their sparse, threadbare clothing. In fact the movement was not just made up of the peasants who worked on the ranches. It included landowners and cattle-breeders and people from across the entire social spectrum.39