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Soil Free from Slaves: Slave Law in Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Portugal

2011; Frank Cass & Co.; Volume: 32; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0144039x.2011.588480

1743-9523

Cristina Nogueira da Silva, Keila Grinberg,

History of Colonial Brazil

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes See Didier Lahon, ‘O escravo africano na vida económica e social portuguesa do Antigo Regime’, Africana Studia 7 (2004): 73–100 (76–85), in which he provides statistical data on the slave population of Lisbon. According to Lahon, the number of Africans imported into Portugal between the second half of the sixteenth century and 1761 was about 400,000 (75). He also states that between 1756 and 1763, 998 slaves were shipped in Lisbon Customs (76), and that between the late seventeenth century and 1761 the black population, especially slaves, may have represented 15 per cent of the population of Lisbon, which means 22,500 for a total population of 150,000 (79). Sue Peabody, ‘There Are No Slaves in France’: The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the Ancient Régime (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); Keila Grinberg, ‘Freedom Suits and Civil Law in Brazil and the United States’, Slavery & Abolition 22, no. 3 (2001): 66–82; Christopher Brown, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006). Kenneth Maxwell, Pombal: Paradox of the Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995); Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro, D. José (Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores, 2006). Rafael Marquese, Feitores do corpo, missionários da mente (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2004), 174ff. João Pedro Marques, Os sons do silêncio: o Portugal de o itocentos e a abolição do tráfico de escravos (Lisbon: Imprensa de Ciencias Sociais, 1999), 55. This data came from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, http://www.slavevoyages.org. Sílvia Lara, Fragmentos setecentistas: escravidão, cultura e poder na América portuguesa (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2007), 127; David Eltis and David Richardson, Atlas of the Atlantic Slave Trade (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 29. Maria do Rosário Pimentel, Viagem ao fundo das consciências (Lisbon: Edições Colibri, 1995), 58. Order with the force of law from 19 September 1761. See Sílvia Lara, ‘Legislação sobre escravos africanos na América portuguesa’, in Nuevas aportaciones a la historia hurídica de Iberoamérica, ed. José Andrés-Gallego (Madrid: Colección Proyectos Históricos Tavera, 2000), 345–346. Lahon, ‘O escravo africano’, 93. According to Lahon, who considers them to be determining factors, more than the lack of workers in Brazil, the other reasons cited – especially that of public order, slave traffic to the metropolis and the introduction of slaves owned individually – allowed, until the eighteenth century, access to slave labour at a very advantageous price. This situation meant that, until that time, slaves played an important economic role, so much so that at times it led to resistance by some trade guilds (76–85). Lahon also provides information on the accusation of competition of slave labour and the perception of its presence in the degrading of the ways of life of free workers in the kingdom since the sixteenth century (86–87). Didier Lahon, ‘Esclavage et confréries noires au Portugal durant l'Ancien Régime (1441–1830)’ (PhD diss., L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 2001), 102. Lahon has also identified the opposition of some corporations' craftsmen (for example, Lisbon boatmen and goldsmiths) to the employment of slaves in these trades. See Lahon, ‘O escravo africano’, 84–85. For example, the legislation that had governed slaves bearing arms since the sixteenth century. See Didier Lahon, ‘Violência do estado, violência privada: o verbo e o gesto no caso português’, in Ensaios sobre a escravidão (I), ed. Manolo Fiorentino and Cacilda Machado (Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Editora UFMG, 2003), 96. In addition to the reference to these laws, Didier also describes an Ordenação Real from the early eighteenth century where serious problems of public order were denounced, in which the slaves would have taken a very active part. Violence within the slave community was also described in notices published in Lisbon's eighteenth-century weekly newspapers (97). António Manuel Hespanha, Cultura jurídica europeia: síntese de um milénio, 3rd ed. (Lisbon: Publicações Europa América), 239ff. Didier Lahon identifies these kinds of comments from foreign travellers since the fifteenth century (Gerónimo Munzer, 1494, o Humanista flamengo Clenardo (1538). See Lahon, ‘O escravo africano’, 81. With regard to the eighteenth century, we can count, among others, the examples of Richard Twiss and the Duke of Châtelet, cited earlier. Mais, comme tous les hommes naissent égaux, il faut dire que l'esclavage est contre la nature, quoique, dans certains pays, il soit fondé sur une raison naturelle; e il faut bien distinguer ces pays d'avec ceux où les raisons naturelles mêmes les rejettent, comme les pays d'Europe où il a été heureusement aboli' . Montesquieu, De l'e sprit des lois [Spirit of Laws] (Paris: Gallimard, 1995), bk. 15, chap. 7,. See also Cristina Nogueira da Silva, ‘Escravidão e direitos fundamentais no século XIX’, Africana Studia 14 (2010): 243ff.; Tâmis Parron, ‘A nova e curiosa relação (1764): escravidão e ilustração em Portugal durante as reformas pombalinas’, Almanack Brasiliense 8 (2008): Luis Geraldo Silva, ‘“Esperanças de liberdade”: interpretações populares da abolição ilustrada’, Revista de História 144 (2001): 107–149. Sue Peabody, ‘The French Free Soil Principle in the Atlantic World’, Africana Studia 14 (2010): 9–12. Notice of 5 June 1767, in Lara, ‘Legislação sobre escravos africanos’, 351n522. It is interesting to note that this Portuguese iteration of gradual emancipation by generation, or ‘free birth’, precedes the Pennsylvania legislative iteration promoted by American Quakers by seven years. ‘[C]hildren born before the publication of the law remained slaves if they were not of the fourth generation.’ Lahon, ‘Esclavage et confréries noires’, 109. Lahon found processes in which freedom was denied to third-generation slaves who requested it shortly after the law of 1773, with the argument that these slaves were necessary to work the land in Alentejo. Lahon, ‘O escravo africano’, 95. Until 1830, there are still reports of the presence of slaves in the kingdom. Lahon, ‘Esclavage et confréries noires’, 110; Jorge Fonseca, ‘As leis pombalinas sobre a escravidão e as suas repercussões em Portugal’, Africana Studia 14 no. 1 semestre 2010, 29–36. Lahon, ‘Esclavage et confréries noires’, 108. ‘I had certain information that throughout the entire Kingdom of Algarve and in some provinces of Portugal there are still people so lacking in feelings of Humanity and Religion that they keep slaves in their homes, some of whom are whiter than them with the name of Blacks and Negros, and others Mulattoes, and others true blacks, for through the reprehensible propagation thereof, they perpetuate this captivity through an abominable Commerce of sin, and of stealing the freedom of the miserable babies born from those successive and lucrative concubines, under the pretext that the Wombs of Slave Mothers cannot produce free Children under Civil Law.’ Lara, ‘Legislação sobre escravos africanos’, 359–360. Maria do Rosário Pimentel, ‘A escravatura na perspectiva do jusnaturalismo’, História, Cultura e Filosofia 2 (1983): 329–375; ‘Escravo ou livre? A condição de filho de escravos nos discursos jurídico-filosóficos’, História, Cultura e Filosofia 13 (2000/2001): 37–53. With regard to this topic, see also the classic work by David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1975). The importance of the brotherhoods in the process of granting and registering the manumissions is clear in the Order of 12 August 1763, which states that the manumissions should be registered in the book of the Brotherhood of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos. Fonseca, ‘As leis pombalinas’, 2ff., 11ff. Daniela Buono Calainho, Metrópole das Mandingas: religiosidade negra e inquisição portuguesa no Antigo Regime (Rio de Janeiro: Garamond, 2008); Lucilene Reginaldo, ‘África em Portugal: devoções, irmandades e escravidão no Reino de Portugal, século XVIII’, Revista História 28, no. 1 (2009): 289–319. The study of these processes is still under way, both in Portugal and Brazil. Future studies may serve to indicate more clearly the reach of the actions of the slaves in this context, as well as the result of its requirements. This case was discovered and analysed by Fernando Novais and Francisco Falcon, ‘A extinção da escravatura africana em Portugal no quadro da politica pombalina’, in Aproximações: estudos de historia e historiografia, by Fernando Novais (São Paulo: Cosac Naif, 2005), 101–102. Ibid., 100. See, for example, Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, A hidra de muitas cabeças: marinheiros, escravos, plebeus e a história oculta do Atlântico revolucionário (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2008); Luiz Geraldo Silva, A faina, a festa e o rito: uma etnografia histórica sobre as gentes do mar (séculos XVII ao XIX) (Campinas, São Paulo: Papirus, 2001). This document, filed in the Manuscript Section of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, C 420, 49 n. 12, was found by Manolo Florentino and reproduced by him in his book Tráfico, cativeiro e liberdade: Rio de Janeiro, séculos XVI–XIX (Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 2005), 358 (attachment 1). Lahon, ‘Esclavage et confréries noires’, 102. Notice of 22 February 1776, in Lara, ‘Legislação sobre escravos africanos’, 361–362. Decree of 7 January 1788, in Lara, ‘Legislação sobre escravos africanos’, 362n528. Ibid. Order of 10 March 1802, in Novais and Falcon, ‘A extinção da escravatura’, 102–103. Juízo da Índia e da Mina, Feitos Findos, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, Proceeding No. 12, Set 12, Box 136. Ibid., Process No. 1, Set 2, Box 126. Lahon analyses similar cases in ‘Esclavage et confréries noires’. Here, the ‘overseas part of this territory’ is understood to be the overseas domains of Portugal, except for Brazil, which became independent in 1822. Throughout the nineteenth century, the overseas Portuguese possessions were understood to be the African and Asian territories belonging to Portugal: Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde, Goa, Macau and Timor. On this process, see the works of João Pedro Marques and, for a synthesis, João Pedro Marques, Sá da Bandeira e o fim da escravidão (Lisbon: ICS, 2008). See also Cristina Nogueira da Silva, Constitucionalismo e império: a cidadania no ultramar português (Coimbra, Portugal: Almedina, 2009), 239ff. Vicente Ferrer Neto Paiva, Elementos de direito natural ou de philosophia de direito, 2nd ed. (Coimbra, Portugal: Imprensa da Universidade,), 70. Manuel Maria da Silva Bruschy, Manual de direito civil português, vol. 1 (Lisbon: Editores Rolland e Semiond, 1868), 30. António Ribeiro de Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil portuguez para o ano lectivo de 1843–44, ou comentário às instituições do sr. Paschoal José de Mello Freire sobre o mesmo direito (Coimbra, Portugal: Imprensa da Universidade, 1845), 79. On legislation in the Ordenações Filipinas and other laws regulating slavery during the Old Regime, see Lara, ‘Legislação sobre escravos africanos’, 24–25. Joseli Maria Nunes Mendonça, Entre a mão e os anéis: a lei dos sexagenários e os caminhos da abolição no Brasil (Campinas, São Paulo: Editora da Unicamp, 1999). José Homem Corrêa Telles, Digesto portuguêz ou tratado dos direitos e obrigações civis, vol. 2 (Coimbra, Portugal: Imprensa da Universidade, 1835), 219. Liz Teixeira also notes that ‘the black slaves residing in the African Colonies of Cape Verde, and others adjacent to Africa, are temporarily conserved ’. See Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil, 129 (our emphasis). Pascoal José de Mello e Freire, Instituições de direito civil português, tanto público como particular (1789), 18, http://www.fd.unl.pt/Default_1024.asp. Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil, 68. See also Manuel António Coelho da Rocha, Instituições de direito civil portuguez, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (Coimbra, Portugal: Imprensa da Universidade, 1848), 34–35: ‘All men are capable of having rights, and therefore, all men are person’. Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil, 68. Manuel Borges Carneiro, Direito civil de Portugal (Lisbon: Impressão Régia, 1826), 65: ‘The children, families and slaves are real people’. Ibid., 97. ‘To the contrary, according to Roman Law, not every man is a person; this is what is seen in the slave, since he is incapable of having or of owing rights.’ See Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil, 68. Coelho da Rocha, Instituições de direito civil, 35. See Silva Bruschy, Manual de direito civil, 30. On this topic, see Nogueira da Silva, ‘Escravidão e direitos fundamentais’. ‘[It] is not due to a lack of respect for the principle, but rather to the need to serve the interests created many years ago that it would be inconvenient to promptly make cuts without a state of transition that reconciled the demands of justice with the interests of society.’ See Dias Ferreira, Codigo civil portuguez annotado, vol. 1 (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1870), 7. As an example, see also Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil, 79. Silva Bruschy, Manual de direito civil, 31. Mello e Freire, Instituições de direito civil, 18. For example, they mentioned the Ordenações Filipinas, Liv. V, Tit. 36, para. 1, affirming that in it is expressed the idea of equality of punishment between slaves and servants, or the decree of 30 September 1693 and the Order of 3 October 1758, ordering that owners keep their slaves in jail if they are there as a punishment, and that they be treated like other prisoners. See Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil, 78; Corrêa Telles, Digesto portuguêz, 220; Coelho da Rocha, Instituições de direito civil, 35. Silva Bruschy, Manual de direito civil, 30: ‘Considered as work instruments, they are still far from the condition of Roman slaves. They are not things, they are men.’ Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil, 78; Mello e Freire, Instituições de direito civil, 16; and Borges Carneiro, Direito civil de Portugal, 100–101, which dedicates a subchapter to them, in which it presents the laws ‘in favour of the freedom of Indians in Brazil’ as proof of the prevalence of the principles against slavery in Portuguese legislation. Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil, 78. João de Sande Magalhães Salema, Princípios de direito político applicados à constituição política da monarquia portugueza de 1838 ou a theoria moderada dos governos monarchicos constitucionaes representativos (Coimbra, Portugal: Imprensa de Trovão, 1841), 464. Liz Teixeira, Curso de direito civil, 88. Basílio Alberto de Sousa Pinto (1777–1849), Lições de direito público constitucional (1840), Lição No. 8, 20, http://www.fd.unl.pt/Default_1024.asp. Lahon, ‘Esclavage et confréries noires’, 105–109; Fonseca, ‘As leis pombalinas’, 8. Sílvia Lara, ‘O espírito das leis: tradições legais sobre a escravidão e a liberdade no Brasil escravista’, Africana Studia 14 (2010): 73–92, which also analyses how the ‘judges and legal scholars involved in the debate on freedom actions in the middle of the nineteenth century were leaning over the Portuguese body of legal studies in search of the legal tradition capable of sustaining legal actions in favour of the … matter of the extinction of slavery’ in Brazil (23). For Brazil, see Lara, ‘Legislação sobre escravos africanos’, 42–45. Additional informationNotes on contributorsCristina Nogueira Da SilvaCristina Nogueira da Silva is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Researcher at Cedis, The Research Center of the Law Faculty, financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science, Lisbon, Portugal. Email: AnaCristinaSIlva@fd.unl.pt.Keila GrinbergKeila Grinberg is Associate Professor in the Department of History, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), Researcher of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and of the Foundation of Research of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Brazil.