New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-05-20
EMANCIPATION IN BRAZIL.

The historic event of the week has been
the elimination Of the emancipation move
ment in Brazil When the Act of April 20,
1871, was passed, there were 1,547 $50
slaves in the kingdom The average value of
shuman property was 1876 a soul, market rates,
so that in the aggregate slave labor represented
money valuation Of nearly $3.50, 200, 900.
In order that the financial burdens of enamel
patton might not fall too heavily upon slave
owners, scheme of gradual manumssion was
adopted BY the decree of 1871 freedom was
granted to all children born of slave mothers
subject to an obligation to serve their masters
as apprentices for twenty one years If they
refused to submit to this condition their owners,
or rather their mothers owners, were allowed
to appeal to the courts and to exact punishment
and penalties. The apprentices themselves,
when inhumanly or unfairly treated could
also seek redress from the courts. The move
ment for emancipation had received its first
impulse from pull lie opinion in Ceara and other
Northern provinces whore owners voluntarily
freed their slaves, and it acquired increased
momentum during the twelve years preceding
1888 when active measures were adopted to
hasten the process Of gradual manumission.
There were, however no pioneer abolitionists,
and the question never became sectional
issue as in the United States, although the
Northern provinces were more favorable TO
emancipation than the Southern provinces.
The Government itself had set landed pro-
prietors an example by releasing all its own
slaves, and public opinion during the last
five years has matured rapidly, so that the
DEGREES of the last week liberating every re-
naming slave meet with general approval
North and South, and are to be celebrated by
three days of public festvity. Ii is mag
nifcent result which secures freedom to the
slave in two-ffths of the great South American
continent without sectional war and without
entailing enormous losses upon the agricultural
classes.
The processes Of emancipation in Brazil have
been very different from those employed in
Russia twenty-five years ago. The slaves were
blacks owned by superior race. The serfs
were agricultural labOrers and peasants of the
same race with their masters. In Russia the
gigantic reform of releasing 100000 Of
serfs on the estates of mobiles and landed pro-
prietors was accomplished by the sovereign
act Of the Gar with the cooperation Of all
classes Of the Empire. The serfs were not only
made their own masters, but those who were
not domestic servants were also placed In pcs
session of lands occupied and titled by them.
These lands were purchased by the Govern
ment, four-ffths of the capitalized dues being
paid outright TO the prpprietors and The re-
naming fifth by the freedmen, together with
the original purchase money, in instruments COW
ering long period Of years. The complex
nature Of the process led TO great confusion
and the results have been of mixed character,
favorable alike to landowners and peasants,
and at the same time Disappointing in many
respects to both. The peasants did not as az
rule get as much land as they required, and
have remained in an impoverished condition
OverbuIdcDed with taxation and the develop
ment OF communal institutions and local gov
eminent under the new conditions have beer
slow, artificial and unsatisfactory, In Brazil
there has been no necessity for converting
freedmen into landowners nor for reconsti-
tuting the political and social order Of the
EE,nire. Emancipation has been comnara-