Slavery in Brazil

I have chosen to read an article titled The Rise and Fall of Slavery in Nineteenth Century
Brazil, by Leslie Bethell, which was originally published in the Transactions of the Royal
Historical Society. In this article, Bethell attempts to give an overview of the entire picture of
how slavery ended in Brazil. She notes in her introduction that, compared to the recent
advances in understanding of the period between the 16 th and 19th centuries, comparatively
little research has been done on the latter part of the 19 th century, so she wanted to give
particular emphasis to that period. The meat of her argument consists primarily of two topics:
the point at which the slavery system began to fall apart in Brazil, and the events which sped up
the process in the final years. I found her arguments convincing and I am in agreement with
them, however her article is not clearly outlined from the beginning, so one has to be an
attentive reader to catch her main arguments. I will briefly outline her arguments on the
aforementioned two topics and show how she supports them.
Regarding the reasons for the tide turning against slavery in Brazil, there are of course
numerous factors at work, but she marks the decisive bow as coming from within the Brazilian
slave system itself, namely, that it was not self-reproducing. Bethell astutely notes that the
ending of the slave trade need not have been the ending of the slave system in Brazil, as it
managed to continue to thrive in the United States despite this obstacle. However, in Brazil,
because birth rates were low, and rates of mortality and manumission were high, Brazil was
particularly dependent on the slave trade. Therefore, once the slave trade was suppressed in
Brazil in 1850-51(which was mainly a result of British pressure), the institution of Brazilian
slavery had its fate sealed, despite the fact that slavery continued for decades after.

Another aspect Bethell covers are the very last years of slavery and how it rapidly
collapsed in 1887-88. As already noted, even after the slave trade was ended in Brazil, slavery
continued for some decades afterward. However, in the late 1880s, two main factors caused
the institution of slavery to come to a swift end. The first was the slaves fleeing the plantations
in large numbers. While this had always occurred to some extent, the scale during this time
was of a much greater magnitude. Additionally, the military was no longer willing to protect
the interests of the slave owners, so the runaway slaves were not returned to their plantations
by force.
The other aspect that caused the rapid collapse in the final years was that slave owners
began freeing their slaves in large numbers. This was mainly in exchange for labor contracts,
and also in response to urging from the Church.
Due to the nature of the subject matter, Bethell mainly consults secondary sources.
Secondary sources close to the era in question were used, but the majority consisted of articles
written by scholars.
While I agree with her arguments because of her strong evidence and logical reasoning,
the flow of the paper was sometimes unpredictable. This was due to an introductory paragraph
that did not set a clear course for the paper. Nevertheless, the body was structured well and
paragraphs were well ordered.
Overall, this was a valuable and concise resource which manages to convey the key
points in the twilight years of slavery in Brazil, in an era that still remains to be thoroughly
researched.

Bibliography
The Decline and Fall of Slavery in Nineteenth Century Brazil
Leslie Bethell
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Sixth Series, Vol. 1, (1991), pp. 71-88