Brazil
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There was another aspect of the law that alienated the plantation owners in the southeast and increased their hostility towards the monarchy: it formally recognized the existence of slave families. Slave registries for emancipation were established, and these were based on slave families rather than individual slaves. This also meant that the traditional process was reversed: whereas previously ‘free men of colour’ had been required to prove their freedom, this now became the responsibility of the slave-owner, who had to produce the slave’s certificate. Without such proof, any ‘person of colour’ was considered legally free. So the ventre livres (those born after the law took effect) were free, despite the clause in the law requiring them to work for their mothers’ masters until they were twenty-one. They were also citizens. The question remained controversial until the Lei Áurea – ‘the Golden Law’ – was passed, finally abolishing slavery in 1888. When it came to laws regarding ‘people of colour’ the government’s main concern was to act gradually, maintaining mechanisms of control. Gradualism, tutelage, dependency and policies of control were part of the state’s strategy in order to deal with freed slaves. In addition, there was a general understanding that both the state and society were entitled to compensation for the loss of workers. The truth was, the prevailing view was to delay the prohibition of the private ownership of slaves. Furthermore, the state’s position of official mediator in all such matters put the government in a direct conflict of interest with the rural elite. Meanwhile, with the new law, abolitionists could pursue the issue in the courts of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.41
But the 1871 law also had the effect of cooling things down and putting the abolitionist campaign on hold. By acting first the government had maintained its control of the slavery issue. Unlike the United States, the Brazilian government had avoided a civil war, and it had also avoided a slave revolution like the one that had occurred in Haiti. It had been essential to postpone any measures until after the end of the Paraguayan War in order to maintain the number of troops that could be conscripted. The motto of the conservative elite was ‘do little to avoid the worst’.
Even the emperor muddled along with piecemeal gestures without touching on the crucial questions of imperial policy. In 1870 he renounced the title of sovereign, as sovereignty belonged to the people. In 1871, on his return from his first visit to Europe, he put an end to the tradition of kissing the monarch’s hand, ‘o beija-mão’, and began to refuse further titles or monuments. The royal vestments were now only used on official occasions, such as the opening of Congress and speeches from the throne. On all other occasions Dom Pedro II preferred to be seen as a ‘modern monarch’, surrounded by books, globes, pens and other symbols of his erudition. Notwithstanding his attempt to stay out of this difficult public debate, he was part of it. Although he declared he was against slavery, he never used his power to hasten abolition.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: FEDERALISM IS FINE, BUT DO NOT MENTION ABOLITION
Meanwhile new opposition factions were emerging and among them, for the first time, were political groups with no connection to the monarchy. The first edition of the newspaper A República was published on 3 December 1870. It contained the ‘Brazilian Republican Manifesto’, which was to provide the basis for the foundation of the Republican Party on 17 January 1872. The new party, which was mostly made up of liberal professionals from São Paulo, organized its first Congress in July 1873, when it was joined by influential new supporters: Paulista landowners, unhappy with what they considered interventionist policies on the part of the government, decided to join the opposition.
Another important aspect to consider is that although São Paulo was the largest coffee producer and was becoming the richest province, it was represented by very few senators: three in 1859, the same number as Pará, but fewer than Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Even in 1889, São Paulo had the same number of representatives in the Chamber of Deputies as did Ceará, and fewer than Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. The situation in the Council of State and in the Cabinet was no different.42 Meanwhile, in the last three decades of the nineteenth century, São Paulo’s coffee plantations expanded throughout the west of the province, and during the 1880s its production overtook that of the province of Rio de Janeiro.
Thus, although this was not the first time the idea of a republic had been contemplated, from 1870 onwards it became a more viable alternative. In 1873 there was a split in the Liberal Party; a faction became the São Paulo Republican Party. This group was highly critical of the over-centralized power of both the Crown and the administration of the empire. Their proposal was for a peaceful transition to a federal republic. In the previously mentioned 1870 manifesto published in A Republica, the republicans had claimed that centralization was comparable to disintegration, and decentralization would lead to unity: ‘centralization – dismemberment; decentralization – unity’. Their preferred from of government was to be ‘American and for America’.43 When the manifesto was published it had attracted further supporters from São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Pernambuco. But there were other provinces where the idea was not so enthusiastically received. In Bahia, for example, which had influential monarchist groups, the manifesto made little impact. In Paraíba the Republican Party did not even exist, and in Ceará, the first state to propose abolition, the party was only founded in 1887. But in São Paulo the Republican Party was strong, counting among its members doctors, engineers, lawyers, journalists, merchants and a large contingent of coffee planters from the west of the province. This group, representing 50 per cent of the delegates, met at the Itu convention present on 18 April 1873.44 It was the first republican convention ever held in Brazil.
Although the emergence of republican parties occurred at the same time as the abolition campaign, the two groups did not work together. The republicans avoided the issue of slavery so as not to risk their alliance with the farmers from the west of São Paulo. It was, to say the least, an opportunist approach. Many of the members of the Republican Party were also slave-owners themselves. The new republicans were concerned with the maintenance of order and developed policies for gradual emancipation based on compensation for the owners. Out of fear of a civil war they kept silent on the question of abolition.
AT THE HEIGHT OF THE CRISIS THE MONARCH TOURS THE WORLD
By the end of the 1870s there were three main factions that opposed the empire: the republicans, the abolitionists and the army. Meanwhile Pedro II was withdrawing more and more from politics. The vogue for caricatures of the emperor dates from this period. He was mocked for how he dealt with state affairs and for his indecision (which was becoming increasingly apparent). He began to be called nicknames including Pedro Banana, Pedro Caju and Emperrador (Banana Pedro, Cashew Pedro – a reference to the long format of his head – and Emperrador means ‘someone who holds things up’ from the verb emperrar). The Brazilian press had been free since 1850 and the emperor was often the target of its jibes. Illustrated journals were popular, especially those carrying the work of three European cartoonists: Angelo Agostini and Luigi Borgomainerio – both Italian and who drew for the Revista Ilustrada and Le Figaro respectively – and Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, a friend of the great Portuguese novelist Eça de Queirós, who had recently arrived from Portugal and founded the periodical O Mosquito. There were more than twenty periodicals of this kind, of which the best known was the Revista Ilustrada, founded in 1876. The emperor’s studiousness, his thin legs, strident voice and lack of interest in politics provided these satirical magazines with ample material. The image of the emperor as an old monarch, a patron of the arts with a long white beard, was widely lampooned. He was depicted falling asleep during meetings of the IHGB, while overseeing the examinations at the Colégio Dom Pedro II or presiding at Congress. He was also shown either dozing or looking like a puppet as he gave speeches from the throne, oblivious to the issues at hand. But the most controversial decision he made at this time was to travel the world, w
hich led to a spate of sharp, bitter comments. The relentless periodicals began to mock what they called his ‘motomania’: the ‘sickness’ that drove the monarch to travel. Nonetheless, the emperor set off travelling both inside and outside Brazil, but mostly to Europe. During 1871, 1876 and 1887 he barely set foot in the country.
In 1871, in the throes of political upheaval, a seemingly bored Dom Pedro II was preparing to visit a world he only knew through books. His departure led to all sorts of partisan controversy. It is interesting to note that, despite the public character of the trips, his personal motives always underpinned the official justifications. In this first case, the pretext was the death of his daughter, Princess Leopoldina of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who lived in France and left heirs under his tutelage. After declaring an official mourning period, the emperor left on 25 May 1871 for Europe and the Middle East. The sovereign enjoyed travelling. He returned only in March 1872, and he was so thrilled with the experience that he soon planned another trip.
The official reason given for the second journey was again of a private nature: the fragile state of the empress’s health. Dona Teresa Cristina left the entourage upon their arrival in Europe and went to take the waters at Gastein, in Austria. After the first stop the emperor continued his journey, with a retinue of two hundred people, to the United States and Canada, then on to Asia and parts of Africa. He then returned to Europe where he visited Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal, in addition to spending six weeks in Paris. Dom Pedro II had turned his trip into a marathon. The monarch, who had never wanted to leave the tropics, now appeared to be in no hurry to return.
Apart from his visit to the East, Dom Pedro II’s second journey was mostly remembered because it was the first time a ruling monarch had set foot in North America, and to visit a republic at that! Dom Pedro II, along with US president Ulysses Grant, opened the 1876 Centennial Exhibition (World’s Fair) in Philadelphia. The emperor was then received with great interest in New York. And as for him, he vowed, ‘the crown would hold its head high’, adding that, after all, he was ‘the only sovereign in the Americas’.45 Perpetually dressed in his formal black coat – ‘the monarch in tails’ as the Portuguese author Eça de Queirós ironically referred to him – and forgoing his honorary title of ‘Dom’, the emperor’s routine was a busy one. He had meetings with intellectuals, inspected pavilions at the exhibition, and visited industries, road-building projects, research institutes and museums.
In his conversations with Alexander Graham Bell, who allowed him to test his most recent invention – the telephone – as well as in his visits to historical monuments, the emperor sought to recover his image as an enlightened, liberal monarch. One of the highlights of his travels was his meeting with Victor Hugo, the great propagandist of the French Republic. During his stay in Paris, Dom Pedro II invited the writer to call on him in his hotel; but as his offer was refused, the monarch decided to abandon protocol and went to visit Victor Hugo at his home. That is where the following dialogue allegedly took place: when the writer’s daughter introduced the visitor as ‘His Majesty from Brazil’, the emperor is said to have replied: ‘My dear, there is only one Majesty here: Victor Hugo.’ After the meeting they exchanged photographs. The visit was, no doubt, a boon to Brazilian republicans, but the monarch’s triumph would not last long. On his return he found the mood very different from when he had left.
SCANDALS ON THE HORIZON
It is said that the efficacy of a ruler is directly related to his or her capacity to remain untouched by scandal. The 1870s brought on a deliberate campaign in the press to denounce the exaggerated expenses of the court. The expenses were listed, the country’s finances verified, and transparency in the submission of accounts demanded. In 1873 the Carioca newspapers printed controversial details of the emperor’s expenses when he had stayed at the Hotel do Porto, in Portugal, the previous year. Public opinion was divided between those who wanted to preserve the emperor and those who wanted to raise questions about his behaviour as a citizen; in other words, between those who wanted to keep the information secret and those who wanted to secure the constitutional right of freedom of the press. Whether for or against, the monarch’s public image had been compromised.
The greatest scandal of the period was known as ‘the theft of the crown jewels’. Although the episode in itself was of little importance, the repercussions were an evident sign of the mistrust that now surrounded the monarchy. In the early hours of 18 March 1882 some rare jewels belonging to the empress disappeared from the Palace of São Cristóvão. The chief of police, Trigo de Loureiro, quickly realized it was an inside job, a crime committed by someone who knew the palace well. Manuel Paiva and his brother Pedro de Paiva – long-standing servants at the palace – became the principal suspects, a fact that the press accused the emperor of covering up. When the two were arrested and confessed their crime, neither was prosecuted. Even after the jewels, thought to be worth ‘a fortune’, were found in Manuel Paiva’s house, hidden in cans of butter, the two were let go without punishment.46 The public reaction was one of indignation. The Jornal do Commercio declared: ‘The restitution of the stolen goods may be enough for the proprietor, but it does not meet the moral requirements of society.’ In A Gazetinha, Raul Pompéia47 went as far as accusing the emperor of having raped Paiva’s daughter and having released Manuel Paiva out of fear of retaliation. The Gazeta da Tarde attacked the emperor’s ‘weakness’, while the Revista Ilustrada published a satirical article demanding that justice be done. News of the scandal was even transmitted by telegraph to papers abroad. It was evidently a deliberate attempt to systematically attack the emperor, and his image was seriously compromised.
Although Dom Pedro II did what he could, his traditional policy of dissimulation was hard to sustain. He had always had lovers, but now his infidelities were commented on in public. The court had always had an ample budget, but it was only now that someone remembered to produce the accounts. Later, Gilberto Freyre would point out that by ‘exchanging the crown for a top hat’ the monarchy had put itself at risk. He called Dom Pedro II ‘a grey emperor in a land of tropical sun’ and saw an incompatibility between the people’s expectations and the new image the emperor had adopted.48 After his return from Europe it seemed he had distanced himself from the local imagery, as if he were the king of another people. During the 1883 carnival one of the floats displayed an image of the emperor, sitting alone, with the inscription: ‘They’ve stolen everything from him’. Another float satirically referred to his interest in the passage of the planet Venus, mocking his interest in astronomy. Perhaps the most pertinent comment came from a cartoon by Agostini: ‘From staring at the sky so much, the emperor will lose his way on earth’.
CRISIS AT HOME – THE EMPEROR TRAVELS TO EUROPE
By the beginning of the 1880s the emperor was besieged with problems. In 1880 the Brazilian Society Against Slavery was founded, and in 1883 the Abolitionist Confederation. The same year the Romantic poet Castro Alves published his poem ‘The Slaves’ (‘Os escravos’) and Joaquim Nabuco published his book on abolition (O abolicionismo). Both were to become highly influential, the first in the field of literature, the second in political science. The times were changing and new voices were needed to correct the injustices of the times. Castro Alves wanted to transform the world. His poetry reached ‘the clouds of humanity’s tears’ and became ‘the herald of freedom’. It was described as ‘lightning’s brother’ and ‘the tempest’s son’. He wrote his poetry to be recited in public and to penetrate the souls of the audience. As his work suggests, he dedicated most of his life to the fight against slavery.49
In 1884 slavery was officially abolished in the provinces of Ceará and Amazonas, and on 28 September 1885 the Saraiva-Cotegipe Law, also known as the Lei dos Sexagenários (Sexagenarian Law), was passed. The law granted all slaves over sixty their freedom, although it required them to work for a further three year
s after its promulgation. The conservative nature of the measure led to an immediate reaction. Between the passing of the Lei do Ventre Livre and the Lei dos Sexagenários the origin and distribution of slaves had radically altered. According to the Report of 1886, due to death and release from slavery the number of slaves in the country had been reduced by 412,468. Estimates for 1886 assessed the slave population at 1,133,228, and the number of officially registered slaves in 1887 was 723,419. Furthermore the distribution of slaves around the country was changing: slaves were being transferred from the north to the south, and many more of them were being granted their freedom in the former than in the latter.
Another blow fell in 1885, when a cholera outbreak decimated the population of Rio de Janeiro. Nevertheless, the emperor – who had made a loan of £50,000 to the Knowler Foster Bank in London – kept to his plan to return to Europe, setting off on 30 June 1887. This third trip received a great deal of criticism from the press. Some newspapers alleged that Dom Pedro II was travelling to get away from the urgent political questions. Others put it down to his failing health. At sixty-two years old, the emperor did indeed appear tired and old, with deep wrinkles on his forehead, a glazed look in his eyes, and an immense white beard.
A small committee travelled with the emperor and his wife aboard the Gironde. Among them were the emperor’s grandson, Pedro Augusto, the Count of Carapebus, the emperor’s doctor Count Mota Maia, the Viscount of Saboia, and José Maria da Silva Paranhos, the Viscount of Rio Branco. The emperor had fallen ill in 1887 and again at the beginning of 1888. It was said that if his first journey had been motivated by the desire to see the world, and the second by the empress’s illness, the third was an attempt to conceal the fact that Pedro II himself was ill. On many occasions during the journey, which lasted several months, Princess Isabel, along with her husband the Count of Eu, stood in for her father. The Count of Eu was becoming an increasingly unpopular figure, with rumours circulating about his alleged greed and certain shady deals. He owned the ‘government boarding houses’. On 3 August 1889 the Diário accused him of being a ‘slum landlord’ and a ‘wandering usurer’, increasing general concern about the power the Frenchman would wield if his wife were to succeed to the throne.