Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-01-08
IN Brazil.

Efforts to Entirely Break UP the Trafic In
Human Flesh Without Avau-hstory OF
pedro Calls ~ Attention of Parliament
to the Matte8
WASHINGTON, Dec. Is. - Among the
Diplomatic dispatches recently sent to Con-
gress by the President is one from Charles
B. Trail, Secretary of the Legation at Rio
de Janeiro, giving a brief history OF the
emancipation movement In Brazil ana a
statement of the present aspect OF the slav-
cry question there. A law was passed, he
says, in 1881, which declared free
ali negroes and their children who
should be imported into the Empire
after that date, but this law was
never executed, and III spite of it the slave
trade increased, reaching, prior to 1851,
enormous proportions. Fifty thousand ne
gro slaves were imported in a single year
when the trade was at its height. The eff
fective Intervention of the British Govern
ment in 1851 broke up the foreign trade,
and from that time the friends OF the slaves
in Brazil were able to make some Roadway
against their opponents.
In 1871 the Abolitionists secured the pas
sage of a law declaring the children born
of slave mothers after that date should be
free, and providing for the reimbursement
of the masters at a certain rate; also
that there should be annually freed
in every province of the Empire as
to The quota allotted to each PROV
ince out Of the fund destined for that pur-
pose. The emancipation fund was derived
from a tax on slaves, subscriptions and leg
acies, six annual lotteries, fines from the
violation of this law, ETC., and is in control
of the Judge of the Orphans Court in
each province. 1t was hoped that the
slave-owners would quietly acquiesce,
but the hope was fallacious.
The registry of slaves, which the
law required, showed that very few chill
dren were born to slave mothers Immediate
ly after the passage OF the law, while the
record.o of births for the preceding year was
This proved the extensive and
almost universal Justification of the records.
In other respects the provisions OF this law
were successfully evaded.
In 1881 it. was estimated that every sixth
person throughout the empire was a slave.
The Abolitionists continued to gain in num-
bers after the passage of the law of 1871,
and for a few years they directed their
efforts to the acknowledgements Of a
single parish in the province of
Ceara, which was accomplished. Par
ish after parish in this province was then
attacked and conquered, and OH March 25.
1884, the enfranchisement of the last parish
in the province was publicly celebrated.
| When the work was begun in 1878 the prov
ince contained $1,000 slaves. In 1881 tho
| number had been reduced to 10000. The
plan of operation Of the Abolitionists seems
to have been first to depeciate the value Of
slave property by a system of mild boy
cotting, and then to buy and manumit the
slaves. The boycotting seems to have been
very successful, as the price first paid by
the Abolition societies for a slave was 437
milreis, and the price last paid was only SIS
milreis, or $$37.
Ceara was, however, a grazing province
and was much more susceptible to aboli-
ton influences than the coffee producing
provinces, which still remain to be con-
Qucred. Tho slave population Of Ceara
was about one to twenty of its freemen. In
Rio there are AGO. 600 slaves to 900, 900
freemen, while in Sas Paulo the slaves out
number the whites four to one. The
Abolitionists are now demanding The I'M
conditional and immediate freedom of the
slaves. The Emperor said OH the opening
of the present Parliament:
A Government bill asking you to pass meas
ures in regard to the slaves is awaiting youl
decision. This is Il grave matter. = Tho
Government advises the execution of the law
OF 1871, now twelve years after it's passage, us
Il means OF eXtricatinE itself from this grave
HlullcI. II IL lluccu. u SiuNc iuuttef lOI
this country. Assassinations of masters
and oNerseers by slaves, followed by
the most terrible revenge, are becoming
more and more frequent. Brazil is bid.
ding for immigrants to open up her wonder.
full resources, but immigrants are not to be
competition with that OF slaves. Her finances
are u source of increasing uneasiness
but every one knows that the worst has
that day when the country finds hel
industries totally paralyzed through the
want OF labor. her slaves having acquired
or as the result of a servile Instruction
After she is freed of this terrible incubus
starting anew with the principles that under
tain that rank among the powers of the globe
for which nature has evidently destined her