Dangers of Excessive Punishment of Slaves: A Warning by the Brazilian Minister of Justice (1861)
[Document 1 of 2: The most brutal forms of punishment were inflicted until the last years of slavery. Nevertheless, as slavery began to be widely recognized as both immoral and impermanent, brutality was more often criticized and therefore perhaps less common. Changing attitudes were reflected in the nation's laws. In the final decades of slavery, for example, the whipping of slaves who committed misdemeanors was often replaced by less damaging palmatoadas, or by a fine, or a few days in jail (see Document 6.7).
The following order of the minister of justice, dated June 10, 1861, is further evidence of moderating attitudes, as well as of the disastrous physical effects of traditional punishment. Source: Colleccao das decisoes do Governo de 1861, p. 289.]
Advice No. 365-Ministry of justice---June 10, 1861. Ordering the judges to act with caution in the application of the punishment of whipping.
Most Illustrious and Excellent Sir: Since it is essential, as a way to reconcile the law's severity with humane principles, that the application of the penalty of whipping convicted slaves have as its sole aim the necessary punishment for the offense, without danger to life or prolonged and serious damage to the individual's health, His Majesty the Emperor
[King Pedro II] wishes Your Excellency to recommend' to the judges of your province the greatest caution in this regard, advising them to gradate the punishment to conform with the age and strength of the delinquent, because it is recognized, as physicians claim, that each time the number of lashes, exceeds two hundred this is always followed by disastrous results; and that: the application of punishment should be suspended as soon as the person, in the doctor's opinion, cannot endure it without danger:
God protect Your Excellency:---Francisco de Paula de Negreiros Sayao Lobato.---To the President of the Province of Rio de Janeiro.
The same as well to the Presidents of the other provinces.
Government Report of the Deaths of Two Slaves - Caused by Brutal Punishment (1887)
[Document 2 of 2: As the following selection shows, the government's order of 1861 to moderate slave punishments (see previous selection) was not always heeded. In fact, the cruel incident described here took place in the province of - Rio de Janeiro, whose president had been specifically called upon just' fifteen years before to take steps to avoid the whipping of slaves beyond their level of endurance. Significantly, the abolitionist, Joaquirn Nabuco, denounced this incident in a series of newspaper articles, helping to bring speedy passage of a law the following October that banned the lashing of slaves as punishment in jails and other public establishments. This law, in turn, probably encouraged the vast runaway movement of 1887 which helped to bring a quick end to slavery less than two years later. Source: Relatorio do Ministerio da justica de 12 de Maio de 1887 (Rio de Janeiro, 1887), pp. 39-40.]
Rio de Janeiro. District of Parahyba do Sul. On July 27 [1886], while the slaves Alfredo, Thadeu, Benedicto, and Laurindo were being conducted to the plantation of their master, Domiciano Caetano do Valle, two of them died on the road.
Each of these slaves had been condemned to suffer 300 lashes; and the execution of the penalty began on the 21st of June and continued for six nonsuccessive days.
No doctor attended the application of the punishment, but on the second day a doctor was called, the individual Benedicto having manifested nervous disturbances; the doctor attended him, declaring that on June 26 the execution of the punishment might continue.
Each slave received three hundred lashes, fifty at a time, applied with the usual instrument of five strips of raw leather; and, the punishment having been completed, they were treated in the jail by a professional.
While being transferred on the road to their master's plantation, their wrists were tied with thin ropes, and in this way, joined in pairs, they were forced to accompany their guides, who followed on horseback, beating them on the way.
Alfredo and Benedicto died on the road, the doctor who examined the bodies declaring that they had succumbed to pulmonary apoplexy.
In order to carry out the exhumation and autopsy of the bodies, acts required to verify the cause of death, fourteen doctors were summoned. However, nine of these, making various excuses, refused to aid the cause of justice, and the others were unable to perform any work on dead bodies; as a result the examination did not take place.
The judicial inquest verified that the conductors of these slaves caused the deaths of Alfredo and Benedicto; and the public prosecutor of the district pressed charges against Joao Correia Ventura for having tied the victims' wrists, with their arms behind their backs, and for having beaten them in this condition, so as to force them to walk faster; thereby twice committing the crime of murder.
The establishment of guilt having been initiated, it ran its course, the accused having been sentenced twice to the penalties provided for in Article 193 of the Criminal Code, which, at the appeal, was confirmed by the lower judge of the district.
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