National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1885-12-26
EMANCIPATION IN BRAZIL.
What Has Been Done for the Empire
Slaves and What is Expected.

Among the diplomatic dispatches recently
sent to Congress by the President was one from
Mr.. Charles d. Trail, secretary Iof legation at
Rio dc Janiero, giving n brief history OF the
emancipation movement In Brazil, and state.
ment of the work accomplished, and of the
present aspect of the slavery question.
A law was passed In 1851 which declared
free all negroes and their children who should
be imported into the empire after that date;
but 1t was never executed, and In spite of II,
slave trade increased, reaching, prior to 1851,
enormous proportions. Fifty thousand Negro
slaves were imported IN single year when
The effective intervention of the British gov
eminent In 1851 broke up the foreign trade,
and from that time the friends of the slave in
Brazil were able to make some headway against
their opponents. In 1871 they secured the pas.
sageof law declaring that children born of
slave mothers alter that date should be free. II
provided TOR the reimbursement of the masters
at u certain rate, and also that there shall be
annually freed In every province OF the empire
as many slaves as shall correspond to the quota
allotted to each province, out Of the fund des'
The emancipation fund Is derived from 'the
tax on slayes,g subscriptions, legacies, &C., six
annual lotteries, fines from the violation of
The judges of the orphans courts in each
province have control of the fund. II was
hoped the slayeowners would quietly acquiesce,
but the hope was tallaGlous' The registry Of
very few children were born to slaye mothers
Immediately after the passage of the law, iwhlle
the record OF births for the preceding year
was enormous
This proved the extensive. almost universal
Justification Of the records.
In other respects the provisions Of the lazy
were successfully evaded. In 1882 1t was esti-
mated that every sixth person throughout the
empire was slave. The Rbolitionists con-
tinued TO gain in numbers after the passage of
the law of 1871, and for few years they d.
rected their efforts to the Acknowledgement of a
was accomplished without difficulty. Parish
after parish in this province was attacked and
conquered, and on the 21th of March, 1881, the
enlrancbisement of the last parish IN the prov
incc was publicly celebrated, When the work
was begun In 1873 the province contained $1,000
to 20,0O0, The plan of operations of the aboll-
tlonists Is not fully explained In Mr.. Trails
dispatch, but seems TO have been first to depre-
ciate the value of slave property by a system of
mild boycotnng, and then TO purchase and
manumii the slaves Funds for the purpose,
besides those furnished by the government
were raised bypriyate contribution, by lotteries,
and, to some extent, by the slaves themselves.
The boycOlting seems to have been very sue.
ccsstul In the attainment of Its purpose, rs the
prices first paid by the abolition societies were
i3l mlreis. and OF the last inst alllnent only s.
milICis (S37.
Ceara was however grazing province, and
was much more easily susceptible to abolition
influences than the coffee. producing provinces
which still remain TO be conquered, The slave
population OF CeGra was about one to twenty of
It's reemen, In Rio there are 10000 slaves to
10000 heemeu, while In san Paulo the slaves
Oulnumber the whites four to one.
The nbolitionists are now demanding the I'M
conditional nnd immediate freedom of the
slaves MI Trail says In conclusion his IN lJes