A Brazilian Defends the Slave Trade in Response to British-Inspired Abolitionism (1823)
[At about the time that Jose Bonifacio was writing his essay on the slave trade, the Diario do Governo of Rio, an official journal still controlled by Jose Bonifacio's government, reprinted an article from the London-based Portuguese-language newspaper, Correio Brasiliense. This was a liberal journal published from 1808 to 1822 by the Brazilian-born writer, Hipolito da Costa, who, based as he was in England, sometimes took moderately progressive stands on the slave trade issue.
The following selection is an indignant reply to the Correio Brasiliense article by a reader of the Diario do Governo, who, in responding to arguments of slave-trade critics abroad, expressed views which were common among Brazilians: British opposition to slave trading was economically motivated; the traffic was essential to the Brazilian economy and good for the Africans concerned; blacks could only be made to work if kept in a state of slavery; natural development of Brazil's slave population was not possible; and European immigrants could not quickly or easily replace African workers in Brazil. To this anonymous writer, it was even conceivable that God had created Africans for the specific purpose of laboring on Brazilian plantations. Source: Diario do Governo (Rio de Janeiro); April 22, 1823.]
To the Editors:
Among the several excerpts from the Correio Brasiliense of last December, which you have published, there is to be found in No. 79 of the aforementioned Correio an article that' deals with the abolition of slavery in Brazil. The English, covering their charming policy of self-interest with the sacred mantle of human welfare, have known how to insinuate deftly certain ideas, apparently philanthropic, to achieve a purpose which they so greatly desire: that is, the annihilation of slavery all over America; and their efforts have not been without some success. After the publication of the analysis of the justice of the commerce in slaves from the coast of Africa, written in French by the scholarly Jose Joaquim da Cunha de Azeredo Coutinho (whose loss Brazil so greatly regrets), the whole world knows that the slave trade, far from being barbarous, as ordinarily depicted by the friends of humanity; is legitimate and useful to those same Africans, who, through the mild captivity they experience among us, escape that other tyrannical servitude to which they are condemned by their conquerors, and often death itself. With the arguments thus demolished which the philanthropists so well know how to use to color their canvas, it is entirely clear that "their aim is either to delay the progress of America or to encourage the circulation of money, in this way to increase the consumption of the commodities which the [countries of America] import. But, putting all this aside, let us examine the harmful effects which the extinction of slavery would bring to Brazil, despite the opinion of the Correio Brasiliense that this same slavery is the greatest obstacle to the development of Brazilian industry.
We will not go so far as to claim that the wealth of a country consists, as some assert, only in the existence of many workers; but it is certain that without such workers agriculture, industry, and navigation cannot exist. Brazil is one of the most precious portions of the Universe; yet what will this avail us if she is without workers who can make the admirable fertility of her soil useful? What we see here of agriculture, mining, and industry we owe to the African workers who annually enter our ports. Stop this commerce and we will suddenly see everything reduced to the most deplorable state of misery.
We do not doubt that many persons in Europe can easily erase from their minds this formidable obstacle. They would argue that since there exist in Brazil a large number of slaves (and these have no way to subsist except by their own labor), and since, furthermore, a population is more prolific in a condition of freedom than in captivity, Brazil would continue to have the same number or perhaps even more workers for her service, even if slavery were entirely eliminated. These are beautiful theories, but the real situation is quite different. African slaves are generally rude, soft, and lascivious. Only the goad of slavery can rouse them from the profound inactivity in which they live. Free of that goading, they will return to their natural apathy. However, since they will have certain needs, there will be robberies and murders, and when these unfortunate people find themselves greatly pursued, they will penetrate into the interior. There, surviving on fruits and jungle animals and covering themselves with skins, they will suffer the same destiny as this country's native population.
Many persons who are' fooled by the activity which they observe among liberated persons, by their diligence and love of labor, believe that the inactivity of the slaves is the result of their lack of personal interest in what they are doing. However, this is not the case. Freed persons do not develop that activity after their liberation; quite the contrary, their manumission is normally the result of that activity:
Concerning natural procreation, we would like to suppose that it might be achieved, but this is absolutely impossible due to the bad moral state they are accustomed to, which cannot be remedied in any way. And would we even want expansion of this population?
Since, as we have demonstrated, and as all who have lived in this country know, without slavery it is impossible to make use of African labor, which Brazil so greatly needs, we might consider turning our eyes toward Europe, to attempt to attract immigrants from the Old World to the New. In fact, this idea, so presented, seems advantageous to Brazil and easy to put into practice. It seems advantageous because in this way Brazil might acquire a hard-working population, educated and healthy; easy to put into practice, because Nature's astonishing fertility in this country seems to invite Europeans to leave the ungrateful lands they inhabit and to avail themselves hereof the liberalities America offers. However, this project presents obstacles, one of which is perhaps invincible. When the Author of Nature drew from nothing the precious continent of Brazil, it seems that through an act of His special Providence he also created just opposite Brazil in the interior of Africa men who were deliberately constructed to serve on this continent; men who in the heart of summer, when any European would want to envelop himself in snow, seek out the sun and gather about a fire to warm themselves. In fact, it would be difficult, if not completely impossible, for Europeans to accustom themselves to work exposed to the fiery rays of the sun in a large part of Brazil.
This being accepted as the most important reason why we cannot depend upon the services of Europeans, at least during the years required to acclimatize themselves, there are other reasons which merit some attention, and one of these is the extraordinary difference in the kind of labor performed here. Today the farmers of Europe live in a rural habitat which is shaped and pruned; they labor greatly, in fact, tilling their lands, which bring them little profit. However, that labor is mild, and it shares something of the agreeable quality which the poet divulges in his descriptions of bucolic living. This is not true in Brazil, where nature is virgin, where the colonist must chop down frightful forests before he can build his but and plant his crop. Brazil's agriculture requires men who possess self-confidence and a kind of grand design which is very different from that which Europeans are accustomed to, with their vision of small landholdings into which almost all their native land is divided. Add to all this that the majority, or more correctly, all the Europeans of the class we are referring to, come to Brazil attracted by the hope of buying a slave to help them make their living. It is thus clear that, with slavery abolished, there would be one less reason for them to emigrate.
Such is the immense' damage that the abolition of slavery would bring to Brazil, considering the, present reality. We do recognize, however, that the elimination of slavery is essential if we are to improve public morality, the low state of which is no small obstacle to the progress of the nation. Nevertheless, it seems to us that this task must be achieved over a period of time rather than through an act of legislation. Stimulate European immigration, let these immigrants branch out and mix with the families of this country, let them propagate and produce, and within a few years we will have workers in abundance. The slaves will become useless, and the slave trade will cease all by itself. On the other hand, to pass laws intended specifically to abolish slavery appears to us a mistake which can bring many terrible results.
Dear Editors, I ask that you provide a place in your paper for this humble production of some idle moments of your
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