Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-13
SLAVERY IN BRsZIL.

Although slavery was to cease in Brazil
after 1870, and measures were taken to
suppress that already existing, it will take
more than thirty years to accomplish it.
OF population of ii ZOO, 600 more than
], 800. COO are slaves, and the relations of
some travellers represent their condition
as by no means enviable. The system of
large holdings prevails, the estates some
times measuring not by miles, but by
leagues, and on these vast properties the
labor Of the slaves is severe and continues,
often running far into the night. Severe
punishments follow any misbehavior, and
is is almost impossible for slave to es-
cape, his recapture or death by starvation
following IN a short period. In
some cases, it is said, iron masks
are strapped over the faces of the slaves
to prevent them from killing them
selves by eating clay. On the other hand
M. Coury, of the Museum at Rio Janeiro,
says that the slaves are very well treated.
kindly cared for when sick, and supported
when old and decrepit that there is no
prejudice against the blacks, and all colors
mingle freely at the table, the theatsr, in
the saloons and public places. and even in
the legislative assemblies. He adds that
any sudden emancipation of slaves, such as
was practised in France, Eogand and the
United States, is out of the question in
Brazil, on account OF her economic position.
In that country all wealth depends upon
slave labor, and every kind of enterprise,
agricultural and manufacturing, is per-
formed by slaves. Brazil exports about
two thirds OF the coffee consumed by the
world, and this is all prepared iy
slaves, as are the cotton, cocoa aud
suzar. In some instances free labor
has been tried, and has succeeded where
the production is in part spontaneous, as
in caoutchouc and tobacco; and some COM
parsons between the results obtained by
free and slave labor have always shown the
superiority OF the former. Slave labor is
specially adapted to the cultivation of cof-
fee, but the small coffee plantations worked
by free labor are relatively far more pro-
ductive than the vast coffee fields tended
by slaves, and this result will apply to all
industrial operations undertaken by slaves.
A free laborer performs the work of
two or even three slaves. It is doubtless
In part due to the wide employment of
slave labor that the resources of Bcazil
are not more rapidly opened and worked,
tucuSu III IeCeut years tnSre mas Deeu
large immigration of free labor, which
may increase as slavery dies out. The
product of slave labor is of an inferior
quality, and this fact may account for the
marked fall In the value of Brazilian cof-
fees in the markets of the world and also
for the fact that the cotton of Brazil,
though grown under mora favorable cir.
cumstances, is regarded as inferior to that
produced in the United States. These
conclusions have bsen reached, not from
general theory, but from actual experience,
for in many parts of Brazil comparison is
rendered possible by the existence side By
side OF plantations, the one worked by
slave and the other by freq labor. But
while thus clearly recognizing that slavery
is great drag on the progress of Brazil,
Tor the present the gradual substitution of
free for slave labor viii produce lees de.
rangement to the social conditions of the
country than a sudden and complete emsn-
cipation.