The Northern Pacific farmer., 1880-03-11
BRAZIL SLAVE LIFE.

BRAZIL SLAVE LIFE.
The Last Civilized Nation Where Slavery
Exists..A Glimpse of How They Labor
and are Trained.
Chambers journal.
Brazil being the only civilized coun-
try in which slavery exists i'll full force,
but which even there may, let us hope.
be reckoned in a few years as a thing of
the past, sketch of slave life may not
be uninteresting.
The staple produce of Brazil for ex-
portation is coffee, which is the result of
culture on plantations, known as fase'1'
das. When ripe for market, the coffee
beans are forwarded in bags to Rio Ja-
neiro for sale and shipment. The real
interest in the work on plantations is
centered in the method of slave labor,
which, though doomed to extinc ion, is
still in full force. While such is the
case, free labor cannot exist. Happily
for Brazil, there was a law passed in 1870
destined to put an end to this vile sys-
tenn. 1t was declared that after 1871
the children of slaves should be born
free; so at the present moment there
are no slaves under 8 years Of age. An
average tdze'ada in Brazil will have from
200 to 800 slaves-men, women md
children. These live in quadrangles or
quaaro, divided off into a number of
small rooms, each room being inhabit-
ed by one or two slaves. The first
bell rings about $3.50 o'clock in the
morning. when they get up and make
some coffee. At o'clock the second
bell rings, when they have to fern;
that is, they are drawn up in line and
inspected, to see none is missing. The
field iaborers are then marched of,
each one with basket on his back.
The work that these have to do is the
hardest; the toiling all day in the hot
sun, hoeins the weeds between the cof-
fee trees, planting Indian corn or pick
ing coffee. They work in gangs of
eig ghteen, each one with .teitw or
overlooker, who is himself gener-
ally slave, and is provided with a
whip and Palnaotorio. This latter instru-
ment is made of wood, shaped like the
palm OF the hand, and fastened to
handle about foot long: The wood
is about half an inch in thickness, and
has three small holes bored through it,
and is a common mode of punishment,
especially among the women and chill
dren. The fela hands are out sill day,
stopping an hour and a half for break
fast, and one for dinner. But the slaves
who work in the fields are not more
than Is per cent. of the whole number;
the rest being carpenters, blacksmiths,
machine hands or intirmary patients.
Though slavery still exists in Brazil, it
is, perhaps, less unendurable than that
which exists in certain other countries,
| inasmuch as good man has the chance
of getting ON and ameliorating his po-
sition. He may become a .teitor, and
then he would have separate place
to live in; or he is put to work about
the house or in the garden; while the
most intelligent boys are made to learn
some trade, and often turn out good
blacksmiths, stone-masons, etc. At
7:30 o'clock the bell rings to leave off
work. Until 9 o'clock they can do as
they like; then the second bell rings,
and they are locked in for the night.
The punishment mostly used OF
fqzendos, and one which the blacks
stand most in dread of, is the stocks.
Each plantation has two pair-one for
the men, the other for the women; and
it is most curious the dread the
blacks have of them. They would
much rather be beaten than pass one
hour in them: and accordingly this
punishment is reserved for grave Of
fenses, such as stealing and fighting; in
fact if it were not for this latter, the
stocks would have very few occu-
pants. But the blacks are very quarrel
some; hardly day passes but two
blacks have setto, which ends in one
going to the infrmary and the other to
the stocks. Most taze'adas have chem
lists shop or bodica and two infirmaries,
one for the men and the other for the
women. A great many slaves suffer
from rheumatism and heart disease.
The former comes from the exposure
they have to endure. The slaves are
also good hands at shamming; they
look upon week in the in6rmary as a
sort of holiday, and once or twice a
year each man is seized with pain in
the head or in some part of the body,
which gets wonderfully better toward
the end of the week. The owners do
not mind them shamming now and
then; they say they work the better for
it afterward.
jeff Davis Disguise.
New York Tribune.
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