Slavery in Brazil
Acarajé are a specialty of the state of Bahia in Brazil, and a popular street food
"Acaraje" last modified Aug. 16, 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acaraje
Cuisine in Brazil has been influenced by the influx of Africans in the past: Vatapa Moqueca Feijoada Acaraje
"Afro-Brazilian" last modified Oct. 7, 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Brazilian#Religion
"... black activist of the 1970s also rejected may 13 , which, they argued, portrayes black people as the passive recipients of Princess Isabel's kindness, subjects rather than agents of their own history."
"Blacks and Whites"
" The African influence manifests itself in spectacular form in such institutions as the Congadas and Maracatus - dance re-enactments of African regal processions - which have become such an integral part of the country's carnival parades."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
" The liturgical language of the syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion, candomblé, was an archaic form of Yoruba, passed down orally by successive generations of babalaôs or priests."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
"... in the urban centres, a burgeoning class of skilled black and mulatto artisans was well established by the 1750s: tailors, coopers, boilermakers, joiners, shipwrights, caulkers, stonemasons, blacksmiths and bakers. Many of these were 'forros' freedmen who had obtained manumission either by purchase ... by completion of contract, or by the munificence of a liberal master."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
"...the African element in Brazil's ethnic composition is still visible, as is the indelible African influence on popular culture, from the decorative arts to folklore, cuisine, herbal medicine, music and dance - including the all-pervasive samba,...which began life, as did so many other traditional Brazilian dances, on the sugar and coffee fazendas."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
"Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 added further impetus to the movement in Brazil and in 1871 a 'Lei do Ventre Livre' (Law of the Free Womb) was passed, granting freedom at birth to every child born of a slave."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
"African tribal identities were able to survive relatively intact."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
"In 1885, a step closer to full emancipation was taken, with the proclamation of a law freeing all slaves aged sixty and above, and in 1888 the Aurea Decree liberated all 1.5 million still in bondage."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
"In candomblé, macumba and other Afro-Brazilian religious cults - despite the influence of European Spiritualism and the Catholic veneer - the ancestral gods of Guinea live on."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
"Maintenance of African cultural traditions in Brazil was also made possible by the establishment there of quilombos, communities of maroons or runaway slaves located in the more inaccessible parts of the sertão. The earliest of these were already in existence by the mid-seventeenth century.."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
"The survival of African cultural traditions in Brazil must be attributed both to the direct links with the mother continent, which were maintained until the late nineteenth century, and to the fact that, as mortality was high and fertility low among the slave population, levels of imported Africans remained much higher, and for much longer, than in English-speaking North America."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
"Today, 109 years after the end of slavery in Brazil, and despite the immigration of other, chiefly European and Asian, ethnic groups, an estimated 30-40 per cent of the Brazilian population (ie: upwards of 70 million souls) is still of direct or partial African descent. In the state of Baía alone, the landfall of the majority of Africans in the north-east, the percentage of blacks and mulattos remains, even today, as high as 70 per cent, much as it was in the eighteenth century at the height of the sugar boom."
"Brazil's African Legacy"
Capoeira emerged, and though the origins remain unclear, there is obvious African influence. Thought to be the technique African slaves used to practice self-defense in secret while enslaved.
"Capoeira: an Introductory History"
"In regions of greatest economic intensity, sugar and mining, there was a slave majority. By 1808, slaves made up about 38 percent and whites, free blacks and mullattoes each about 28 percent of Brazil's population."
"Encyclopedia of L.A." 689
"From Africa came bananas, plantains, certain gourds, okra, squashes and oils."
"Encyclopedia of L.A." 695
"Slaves from Africa were paid for in tobacco and even buillon."
"Encyclopedia of L.A." 695
"Among persons of European descent, there were tensions between Portuguese born and Brazilian born; among persons of African descent, between those of different African "nations," between mullattoes and blacks, between free and slave, and even those who had been born free or who had bought their own freedom, or had been given their freedom by an owner."
"Encyclopedia of L.A." 696
"In the fields and mines, especially, they had terrible conditions, long hours, physically demanding labor, and suffered harsh punishments. They lived in crowded quarters, were exposed to diseases, suffered dietary deficiencies, and had low average life expectancy."
"Encyclopedia of L.A." 696
"Place of birth, pedigree, religious orthodoxy, occupation, wealth, civil status, and legal status as free or slave were less subject to interpretation than were skin hues and and attributes based o perception."
"Encyclopedia of L.A." 696
"The majority of skilled jobs were held by whites who dominated the guilds, owned taverns and shops, and held supervisory positions."
"Encyclopedia of L.A." 696
Africans slaves were the field hands of plantations and cattle ranchers and worked in diamond and gold placer mining as well as in domestic service. Some had skills as artisans, porters or boatmen."
"Encyclopedia of L.A." 696
"The basic social unit was the family, either nuclear or extended, with linkages through marriage or godparenthood. Usuallymarriages were between persons of equal social or economic standing and civil status. For the white elite and upper classes, marriage was an instrument to consolidate and extend a family's reputation and fortune."
"Encyclopedia of L.A." 697
Feijoada is Brazil's national dish, but has obvious European influences - resembles European stews.
"Feijoada" last modified Sep. 26, 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feijoada
Moqueca is a Brazilian recipe based on salt water fish stew in coconut milk, tomatoes, onions, garlic, coriander and some palm oil (dendê)
"Moqueca" last modified June 21, 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moqueca
Sertão The Sertão is one of the four sub-regions of the northeast of Brazil. Originally the term referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia and South America that Lusitanian explorers encountered.
"Serato"last modified sep. 16, 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sert%C3%A3o
Rugendas' painting shows the cultural practice of capoeira, that still continues today.
"Slave life in Rio" 246
" Petitions and letters of liberty reveal that many slave mothers labored to free their children first, often continuing enslaved themselves. Slave mothers with freed children appear appear in all the documents from the period."
"Slave life in Rio" 347
Many manumissions say white father/ owners freed children, but it was acually often the hard work and obedient loyalty that earned the children's freedom.
"Slave life in Rio" 347-348
Vatapa is one of the classic dishes of Brazilian cuisine. It hails from Bahia state on the northeast coast where many of the dishes have African origins. A thick version is often served as a filling for acarajé patties.
"Vatapa" accessed 10/13/14 http://www.whats4eats.com/fish/vatapa-recipe
"A growing segment of the populations was composed of people of mixed origins, the result of miscegenation between whites, Indians and Africans who - alongside poorer whites, freed blacks and free Indians - served as farmers, artisans, herders and free laborers."
"World Civilizations" 358
"At the bottom of society were the slaves, distinguished by their color and their status as property,"
"World Civilizations" 358
"Even after Brazilian economy became more diverse, Brazil's social hierarchy still reflected its plantation and slave origins."
"World Civilizations" 358
"The white planter families became an aristocracy linked by marriage to the resident merchants and to the few Portuguese bureaucrats and officials, and they dominated local institutions."
"World Civilizations" 358
"...celebration of the date never died out completely. Commenting in 1892 on the general absence of Abolition day observances, O Estado de Sao Paulo let slip a revealing qualification: 'except for the libertos' street dances in the Rua de Liberdade.' Scattered references to those dances (usually referred to as sambas or batuques) indicate that they continue through the 1890s and into the twentirth century as the former slaves' homage to abolition."
Andrews, George Reid. "Blacks and Whites in Sao Paulo Brazil 1888-1988" (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. 1991) 213
Debret's painting Shows the social heirarchy of brazil in the 1820's
Debret, Jean-Baptiste, "A Government employee leaving home with his family and servants" (last accessed 10/13/14) http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/(after)-Debret,-Jean-Baptiste/A-Government-Employee-Leaving-Home-With-His-Family-And-Servants.html
"Even after the Atlantic slave trade to Brazil was declared illegal in 1850, contraband 'Black Gold' continued to be smuggled across the ocean."
Geipel, John. "Brazil's African Legacy" History Today Volume :47 issue:8, 1997
"Slaves in Brazil had low rates of natural reproduction and high mortality."
Kinsbruner, Jay + Langer, Erick D. "Encyclopedia of Latin American history and Culture" (Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008) 689
"In many African societies, the women did the domestic chores, grew the crops, raised the children and marketed the vegetables and fruits - all skills easily transferred to Rio and made profitable. But in those societies in which the man's occupation had been to hunt and herd, he had not acquired the skills urban slave owners required of him."
Mary C. Karasch, "Slave life in Rio de Janeiro, 1808-1850" (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987) 347
Maurício Rúgendas
Painted a series that highlighted brazilian culture in 1820's
Jean-Baptiste Debret
Painted brazillian slavery scenes
"Africans did not live in Rio unchanged by those around them, but neither did their owners dictate all aspects of their daily lives. Even within the constraints of urban life and in spite of their constant labor, slaves were active participants in the evolution of a new culture with its own language, etiquette, food, clothing, art, recreation, religious and associational life and family structure."
Slave life in Rio" 214
"In Brazil, by the 17th century, 7000 slaves a year were being imported from Africa. By the end of the century, Brazil had about 150,000 slaves - about half its total population."
Stearns, Peter N.+Adas, Michael+Schwarts, Stuart B.+ Gilbert, Marc Jason. "World Civilizations: The Global Experience" (New Jersey, Pearson Education Inc., 2011) 358
Between 1500-1888, four million african slaves were brought to Portuguese's South American colony, Brazil.
Ubirajara G. Almeida, "Capoeira: an Introductory History", last accessed 10/10/14, http://www.capoeira.bz/mestreacordeon/capoeira/history.html
