Reis_slave_resistance_bahia_1807-35.pdf

Slave Resistance in Brazil: Bahia, 1807-1835 Author(s): João José Reis Source: Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Summer, 1988), pp. 111-144 Published by: University of Wisconsin Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3513114 . Accessed: 22/09/2013 08:53 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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in

Resistance Slave 1807-1835

Brazil:

Bahia,

Joao Jose Reis

the shores From the day we left land Of our father's We've been trampled on, Oh now we got to Now we know everything, Somebody got to pay for the work We've done, rebel. Bob Marley, "Babylon System"

rebel

an area half of the nineteenth Bahia, century, During the first a wave known for its many sugar plantations, of Brazil experienced marked the that and conspiracies revolts of slave profoundly as well as their who lived in this of those consciousness period as a bad slaves stood Bahian descendants. Brazil, Throughout and of the protectors in the eyes class to the slave example had resistance slave Collective of the slave order. beneficiaries had never demonstrated but slaves before in the region, occurred I will In this as between 1807 and 1835. such militancy article, conducive to rebellion, how Bahia became an environment discuss and what kind who the rebels themselves, were, how they organized I will to and times. lives their dominated of politics try their from similar demonstrate how Africans organized backgrounds worked on the one hand and how ethnicity lines lives along ethnic on the other of slave resistance as a fundamental and, aspect of slave class to the as a major obstacle hand, development of slave rebellions. and to the success solidarity

THE SETTING and mulattoes creoles are treacherous, slaves ". . . if African the former between are even more so; and if not for the rivalry order would and the all latter, power and social political a servile revolt. . .." crumble before circa 1798. Luis dos Santos Vilhema, is the "The division among Africans large cities." peace in Brazil's Governor of Bahia, Conde dos Arcos,

Review Luso-Brazilian ? 1988 by the University

strongest

guarantee

1814.

XXV, 1 0024-7413-88-111 of the Board of Regents of Wisconsin System

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underwent substantial nineteenth Bahia in the early century and political which profoundly socioeconomic, changes demographic of the slave and the composition of slavery affected the nature in terms of more difficult made slave life These changes class. slave a viable to create the ability conditions, everyday living freedmen in Bahia's of individual and the integration family, both in Bahia, and free blacks On the other hand, slaves polity. did not feel and in the rural areas, in the cities lonely probably their On the contrary, world. a white-dominated within great African of their a good deal allowed them to retain numbers and organizational new cultural and to forge memories strategies and ethnic of coping with class oppression. the Brazilian Towards the end of the eighteenth sugar, century, a great dominant experienced plantations, export crop of Bahian of The origins of over fifty a depression revival after years. econoand dependent like that of other colonial this prosperity, and in world in transformations mies, politics primarily lay and in changes in colonial The European wars, economy, policies. of the plantation in the the disruption in Saint Dominigue society all to and a world trend of prosperity economic 1790s, helped The colony Brazil's share in the international market. enlarge reforms which better Pombalian was also favored by the Portuguese of control and established commerce Atlantic quality organized of the souththe decline Brazilian Internally, export products. and capital to the mining of labor ern mines ended the diversion court to of the Portuguese transference the Finally, region. to international of the ports Brazil and the consequent opening the colonial further stimulated economy.1 navigation centuries and early nineteenth This boom of the late eighteenth The number of before never on a scale occurred experienced. to sugar cultivation and the area allocated (sugar mills) engenhos de senhores the the increased manifold, solidifying power of As more class.2 dominant the local mill owners), (sugar engenho this with tobacco, were purchased and slaves slaves were needed became time that cotton at this It was also crop also prospered. the third most important crop.3 export land and other of cane fields With the extension crops, export such as manioc of foodstuffs to the growing allocated previously all to utilize wanted Slaveowners and beans were taken away. an old colonial available land for sugar cane and did not follow of manioc of 500 garden plots the planting that obliged provision food of slave As the famous "Brazilian for each slave.4 system" and other in the Caribbean known and imitated plantation supply, a of subsistence the decline areas provoked agriculture decayed, Concomifood and pushed severe food upward. prices scarcity the behind fell of salaried consistently groups tantly, wages food items.5 of basic prices the affected The prosperity of export-agriculture adversely Lisboa slave Vilhena, class, exploitation. intensifying probably on the and travellers commented chroniclers and other colonial A more of slaves.6 conditions and living bad working extremely trends was offered of these by a group of testimony significant

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slaves on a plantation in southern Bahia who rebelled around 1790. a unique which denounced, They wrote peace treaty among other the increase of access in the workload and the denial to things, Their manifesto subsistence demonstrated that gardens. clearly had been a "better out by the new wave of there time," wiped prosperity.7 lasted until the when Bahia 1820s, early Sugar prosperity and natural social violence suffered from economic marasmus, not to mention a greater incidence of slave rebellions. disasters, The economic of the 1820s and 1830s again revealed the depression on foreign as the expanlimits of an economy dependent markets, of sugar beets and the development sion of Cuban sugar production Tobacco and cotton economic in Europe diminished opportunities. cotton the Grown in also declined. hinterland, agriculture The lack of good roads, costs. involved transportation great the viaof U.S. with the competition cotton, destroyed coupled the decline of with while tobacco of the crop, collapsed bility from Africa. trade in slaves the legal new with coincided the of point The turning depression In Bahia, became independent. In 1822 Brazil trends.8 political the the Portuguese resisted for about one year and during troops of anti1820s and 1830s the was struck by a series region and federal all very revolts riots, military uprisings, Portuguese With the explusion of Brazil's era. characteristic early national and the activities of antiof Portuguese in July 1823, troops the after that crowds date, merchants, Portuguese Portuguese chose to leave financial of the planters, traditional suppliers the troubles of the sugar Bahia. Their further increased flight who had fought the Portuguese and soon Bahian planters, industry, for the safe from 1822 to 1823, found themselves petitioning return of Lusophile businessmen.9 In this hit by severe Masses Bahia was also droughts. period and the interior for the cities of Reconcavo of people fled In March 1834, the council of the Bahia's Salvador, city. capital of manioc flour, a basic of Cachoeira that the price city reported had reached extreme and many item for the popular classes, figures Food prices were driven died from famine.10 up people had already the war when the inflation, during by tremendous originating Brazilian After forces minted coins. came, peace freely copper at monetary control were but made, many apparently attempts from sugar Bahians shifted their economic activity privileged of counterfeit to the production money.ll production slave no relief to the the Clearly, depression brought After of low sugar prices--and 1821, in spite probapopulation. the because of maintained production roughly bly them--sugar of the slave trade But the decline levels.12 pre-depression which might labor and increased slave prices, provoked shortages more sugar per capita. that fewer slaves were producing indicate In 1845, also worsened diet. Of course, food shortages the slave to a foreign traveller confessed a Bahian planter shamelessly and "in the interior... are badly fed, worse clothed, slaves that, so hard lives do not exceed six years."13 This work that their

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in the kind of treatment was certainly an important ingredient revolts of the period. in the creation of economic fluctuations the effects However, not and living be accepted of poor conditions should working of slaves in of revolt. Poor treatment as causes mechanically conditions and social and demographic Bahia was filtered through an the ways slaves dealt with their thus creating oppression, for the outbreak of rebellions.14 ideal environment The tremendous influx of Africans and the natural demographic colored in the late and eighteenth population growth of the free in the a sizable black created nineteenth majority early century the populaBahian population.15 Around 1798 Vilhena calculated and the Reconcavo to be about tion of Salvador inhabi110,000 A and Indians."16 of which "only a third would be whites tants, 1775 census of Salvador indicated that whites constituted thirtyof 35,253. six of a population Another census in 1807 percent in the proportion of whites of a decline to 27.8 percent indicated There were 4,207 a population of 51,112. free mulattoes, 3,630 We do not have free blacks in Salvador in 1775. and 14,696 slaves and free, details for 1807, but the number of blacks, both slave In the Reconcavo, slaves to 25,502. in Salvador had increased even further. In 1814 a group of frightened outnumbered whites of the area housed slaveowners estimated that the 400 plantations After six and mulattoes for 100 slaves.17 whites only every of the Portuguese, with the flight the white minorindependence, In of Bahia's than a quarter ity had shrunk to less population. 1824 for and the small Bahia figures neighboring population del Rey indicated of of Sergipe that only 22.37 percent province were whites. The fast-growing inhabitants 858,000 group of free blacks and mulattoes 15.03 percent of that population represented and over 60 percent were slaves.18 If slaves of Bahia's in the the majority constituted population 1820s and 1830s, the majority of slaves were African-born and there was also a concentration of slaves from the same ethnic outnumbered Africans creole slaves the Brazilian because origins. slave never achieved natural This can be population growth. primarily by the lack of women in the slave explained population, a result of the pattern of slave trade which, on both the supply and demand sides, favored In addition, men. women fared proporthan men in the manumission A late better tionately process. colonial men to observed that the proportion of slave chronicler women was three In her analysis to one.19 of 582 urban slaves in the early nineteenth Mattoso found that men represented century, between 62.7 to 67.3 percent.20 Of course, in the the situation rural areas was worse. Besides the "creolization" of impairing the slave the lack of women also militated the population, against of a viable formation slave To make matters I worse, family. believe was a high degree that there of sexual meaning endogamy, that for Africans their and took Africans partners primarily Africans of the same area of origin. Given that the perhaps of women were creoles, African men had fewer overwhelming majority chances of finding sexual who were not creoles.21 partners

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The typical slave in Bahia in the nineteenth was then century was very low--and African-born. In male, expectancy young--life he came from the Bight of Benin, which was undergoing addition, linked to the expansion of Islam in profound political instability the area. In 1807, the Count of Ponte, Governor of Bahia, stated that Bahia had received in the previous 8,037 slaves year and most of them were Geges (Ewes), Ussas and Nag8s (Yorubas).22 (Hausas), to the British out of a sample of 55,100 Office, According Foreign slaves into the region between 1817 and 1843, at least imported came from the Bight of Benin.23 Recent estimates percent fifty have placed the total from this area between 1800 and importation 1850 as high as 301,500 slaves. Yorubans represented Among these, the single largest group.24 Bahia's the composition characteristics, demographic especially of the slave were instrumental in promoting African population, and in cities of the region. The size autonomy on the plantations of the slave class with the growth of the free colored coupled sectors the isolation of plantation The rural slaves. prevented areas were now peopled not only by slaves on one side and masters on the other, but also by increasing numbers of small cultivators, landless and vagrants, who could not be effectively workers, absorbed into a slave In 1825 a Bahian chronicler society.25 observed that to the towns of the Reconcavo a racially and on market socially "heterogeneous" population converged day to sell their and "provoke quarrels, produce robberies, complaints, confusions and murders."26 On market day, slaves from different met each other and interacted with free The plantations people. served as places for entertainment and rest growing rural villages from the master's A zealous rule. judge in the town of Maragogipe that complained slaves are found wandering in the streets and taverns of this at any hour of the night, involved in African village singing and dancing in houses where they form partnerships and have the freedom of living and scandalously pernicious cohabitpublicly to the Religion of this ing in offence Republic.27 The judge was especially who rented upset with free colored people houses to slaves. The presence of a sometimes free marginalized colored side with slaves population living by side represented more than a small to the ability of the Bahian challenge ruling classes to control them. The social environment of Salvador further the task of the privileged. complicated In the urban environment of the busy of Salvador, seaport slaves and free colored to the limits allowed people developed by a slave their in devising of survisociety creativity strategies and struggle.28 The lack of a sizable val, resistance, solidarity white meant that blacks and mulattoes the population comprised of semi-skilled and skilled laborers. in necessary pool They, could be found in all positions of the labor structure. fact, In a sample of 582 slaves, Mattoso found forty-two occupations.29 were street domestic They servants, peddlers, stevedores,

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tailors and so on. and slave Free black women blacksmiths, the so-called small dominated commerce to the disgust of the established merchants and government In the late authorities. an irritated Vilhena the black noted that eighteenth century, as these street were called, peddlers practically ganhadeiras, the of distribution cooked and even foods fish, monopolized an ingenious contraband. of market Through system speculation which they called in which was organized caramboZa or cacheteira, their to sell (or small shops), they "gathered everyquitandas when he visited In 1839, Kidder found these Salvador, thing." women in full the depression of the time.30 despite activity of the ganhadeiras were the negros de ganho The male equivalent as stevedores and chair or ganhadores. primarily They worked of course, The stevedores, were fundamental to the sugar porters. on the other hand, constituted Sedan chairs, the business. export in Salvador, most common means of transportation given its irreguor lar topography which did not permit extensive use of carriages even horses. and African barbers creole Mulatto, tailors, surgeon and entertainers also filled of the city the streets where they their in the open air. The slave de exercised profession negros with their masters sum at to hand over a certain ganho contracted the end of each daily or weekly Theoretically, working-journey. the sum contracted for could be kept by the any money exceeding But the system was far from a paternalistic if slave. arrangement the observation of Spix and Martius who wrote that the we believe of ganhadores condition was very sad, for "they are considered as in action their want to recover masters and, since living capital the capital them."31 invested, interest, plus they don't spare But the of calculations urban masters encountered capitalist certain limits of slaves, with governed by the ability together to their own work collectively freedmen, habits, forge and even a certain work rhythm. institutions, African slave for example, once thrown into the ganhadores, urban labor market themselves into which were cantos, organized locations in the city where different of slaves offered groups their services. Each canto received the name of a particular or street of Salvador. Their foldistrict, plaza organization lowed with ethnic the Ewes and Yorubans each lines, Hausas, to their own canto. Each work group also had a leader belonging called of the canto," who functioned as the ultimate link "captain between and the customers.32 the slaves In the cantos, Africans from the same ethnic new origin forged cultural and collective values African Muslims used solidarity. the meeting to teach Arabic, the word of Islam and places spread sew Muslim ritual while for the next customer. garments, waiting slaves and free Africans and worked, Together, played, prayed resisted the loss of their identity. Among themselves they forgot the Christian names given them by the master and instead called each other old or new African names. Some were only by their known by the name of the particular in Africa from which they city known as Oyo or the slave woman came, such as a certain Aprigio, Edum to whom everyone referred as "Ba" (Egba). old and Others,

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In groups had kept or adopted Islamic names.33 of new Muslims, or six and walking five in they carried heavy burdens, singing visitors to Salvador. that These that rhythmic pace impressed noted a long-time Africans, resident, foreign are extremely independent, a wage than carry gaining

lose the chance they would rather more than they think proper.34

of

for individual But earning slaves. money was not a small matter in the long It could a way out of captivity. The mean, run, from slavery to freedom could be obtained passage through donation de aZforria of a carta the purchase and, more frequently, through or manumission did not benefit letter. however, Manumissions, all sectors of the slave class. Masters favored equally generally Brazilian-born and women. It has mulattoes slaves, particularly been estimated of between and fifty that an average percent forty and 1849-50 of letters were bought by or obtained between 1779-80 donated a pro ortion to locally-born that did not reflect slaves, their number in the slave population.35 But although Africans could not acquire their freedom as easily as creoles or mulattoes, many managed to amass enough money to free themselves. associations called juntas They also organized de alforria, which pooled money from freed and slave Africans and served as a kind of credit institution to buy the members' freedom. With the money in hand, slaves could generally count on the of Bahian masters tradition to free their bondsmen upon payment of the first their But no law existed half of the value. during nineteenth to guarantee that masters would abide by this century and cases can be found of their to do so. One refusal custom, of the Nag6 slave such case, that Pacifico in Licutan, happened the context of the great 1835 revolt. His Licutan was a highly-respected Muslim preacher. elderly and religious African insisted his kinsmen followers upon buying freedom least master at but Licutan's twice, systematically refused it. Some three months before the rebellion, Licutan was and held in lieu of payment on a debt owed by his owner imprisoned to the Carmelites. full of While in prison he always had his cell A week before visitors who went there in search of his blessings. one of those visitors told the Muslim the uprising, enigmatically elder he would that the of be fasting period upon finishing rebels the twice atreleased. the fight Accordingly, during to break into the municipal and release the esteemed tempted jail illustrates how the manumission Licutan's prisoner.37 story for slave could fuel collective question eventually provide resistance. it was mostly a sizable However, by creating group of freed Africans of resistance. that manumission the parameters enlarged of the Rec6ncavo, Concentrated in Salvador and villages this class of free of captains of cantos, Africans often the role played of juntas de alforria and leaders of revolts. In the organizers life of and celebrated worked Salvador, lived, everyday they festivals side by side with their as long as they slave brethren,

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the obfuscated to same "nation." the all Ethnicity belonged slave/free dichotomy among Africans. the same ethnic that a tragic But in dialectic, identity of the African into the white man's the total absorption prevented for slave/free African solidarand that served as a basis culture class of slave consciousness. also the development hindered ity, of color and Brazilian-born The hostility Africans between people mark on the slave class. There left a profound is no better who revolted around 1790 than the creole slaves of this example asked of the that the menial tasks demands, and, among other be done by African slaves.38 this division Recognizing plantation from need, the master class creole and or perhaps used purely to control slaves.39 Vilhena observed the violence mulatto troops slaves in Salvador.40 And Africans treated with which soldiers that they would kill all whites retaliated in 1835 by proclaiming and once as their utilize and creoles, mulattoes victorious, lackeys.41 observers maintained that of a the creation Many contemporary the slaves' sense of ethnic lines checked culture slave along and appeased their to revolt. If rebellions deprivation tendency This occurred, by mistreatment. argued, they they were caused The formation of a margilacks substance. however, explanation, nal work culture as a means of adaptation and even may have served the possiaccommodation But it also blurred to a slave society. of total idealized class, bility by the master objectification, in the of slavery. This and which essence theoretically lay in itself a form of resistance. with the Confronted represented of Africans without the Bahian families, overwhelming presence did not succeed in involving classes the foreign slaves privileged and freedmen in a web of paternalistic Had paterrelationships. and a stable African nalism and slave ethnic developed, family would have been much weaker and slaves would have class solidarity of their twice before the lives kin in beloved thought endangering violent The only triumph possessed confrontations. by the master were ethnic the Bahian colored class tensions within community, a broad which of the formation alliance the between impeded African-born the and freedmen Afro-Brazilians, slaves, against master class. Instead of an alliance, social these groups forged movements of their and mulattoes did strike own. Creoles separate in the course of this of Bahian history, but they troubled period Africans in protest--the of the status rarely joined protectors of color people quo always managed to coopt Brazilian-born against and strengths It of the the Africans.42 is these weaknesses rebels and the reality I will the revolts discuss behind that next.

THE REVOLTS "It

is true that times are not good." Antonio Manoel do Bom Caminho, Yoruba freedman, 1835

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occurred in Bahia in 1807, 1809, and conspiracies Slave revolts 1831 and culmi1814, 1822, 1827, 1830, 1816, 1824, 1826, 1828, There of 1835.43 is also nated the great urban uprising with and the Reconcavo in 1844 and of conspiracies in Salvador evidence slaves In addition also formed runaway to these 1845.44 revolts, or mocambos, some of as quilombos known in Brazil communities, with the in violent involved confrontations which were directly of the slave custodians society. in the early nineteenth The first at revolt century attempt in 1807, the government of Joao Saldanha da took place during known for his The colonial Gama, the Count of Ponte. governor, unleashed intolerance toward slaves, repression against systematic to the Overof Salvador. In a letter in the vicinity quilombos as colonial the Portuguese he guaranteed seas Council, body that, a result of his slaves now obeyed "and their masters actions, freedmen to whites."45 Six weeks later, paid much more respect of a conspiracy in the capital the discovery proved him wrong. The 1807 conspirators had planned to revolt on the 29th of May, of Corpus Christi. festival the day of the religious They inin a district tended to burn a building in the northern of limits as a diversionary Salvador tactic and then proceed to seize ships in the port and escape to Africa. But the plot was denounced by a The authorities slave. later found out that the movement encoma sophisticated of leaders in each passed hierarchy organizational urban district and an agent, called whom the rebels "ambassador," The for with the contacts slaves in Reconcavo. responsible and a authorities confiscated bows and arrows, knives, pistols with drums and charms or which, shotgun together good-luck were taken as evidence. to the reports, "mandingas," According the slaves involved were Hausas. Two persons, one slave and one faced the firing others received 150 freedman, squad and eleven lashes each. After the 1807 plot the Count of Ponte became even more laws (African stringent, enacting prohibiting batuques for dancing and religious and restricting the rituals) gatherings of freedmen and slaves.46 geographical mobility The governor's an did not prevent measures, however, energetic The stage of this rebellion was the actual in 1809. insurrection of of the manioc-producing in the outskirts Rec6ncavo, county from Salvador It involved mass slave Nazare das Farinhas. flights On January of a quitombo. and the formation and sugar plantations tried to seize 200 to 300 escapees Nazare, 4, 1809, an estimated did not of arms and supplies, but in search they apparently to succeed. Defeated and leaving they retreated many dead behind, and two days later, sent from Salvador the woods where, troops local the rebels in a bloody battle. militiamen suffocated Many women men and twelve The fate of the eighty-three surrendered. is unknown.47 captured had been crushed, of the rebellion the main nucleus Although wandered small five and more fugitives still of four, groups for some weeks. Some may have travelled the Rec6ncavo throughout of Sergipe del Rey, where the as far as the neighboring captaincy an uprising.48 from Bahia of fomenting authorities accused slaves

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of these seditious success To prevent the consequences by were drafted. The strict ordinances very guerrillas, primitive of Maragogipe, for inof the Rec6ncavo district village judge should return or that all slaves to their masters ordered stance, an early he also established suffer curfew, evening whippings; who rented fines landlords imposed against prohibited batuques, to enforce and asked the governor's rooms to slaves permission who resisted arrest.49 and to shoot and kill blacks arrests of slave Those were typical measures control under the Count of Ponte. at many The 1809 rebellion a threatening established precedent but there The majority of the rebels were again Hausas, levels. of Ewes and Yorubas the presence were reports among indicating a capacity for organization and worked out them. They displayed the above of mobilization. an effective tactic all, However, of the captaincy, heart the in the economic occurred uprising of the slave where the overwhelming Rec6ncavo, population majority lived. under D. The third of the period revolt important happened Bahia between Marcos de Noronha, the Count of Arcos who governed of on matters too liberal 1810 and 1818 and whom many considered The rebellion of 1814 overshadowed the previous slave control. and violence. started on in number of participants It ones a coastal in Itapoan, 28 among slave district fishermen February The rebels killed the of two leagues north Salvador. about and down two engenhos and members of his family, butned foreman of Itapoan. to the village to march on to They planned proceeded from sent but had their the Rec8ncavo, by troops way blocked a bloody were defeated, Salvador. After encounter the insurgents were later on their Four slaves combatants side. losing fifty colonies in in public and twelve to Portuguese deported hanged the majority Africa. This time the Hausas again constituted among the insurgents. some slaveowners, However, upset with the goverhad a cross-ethnic alliance nor's liberal that noted stance, existed.50 the Count of Ponte's of Slaveowners preferred clearly style If Ponte of masters the leniency slave control. believed that Arcos maintained it resulted caused slave that insubordination, from maltreatment. To the slaveowners that urged the repression that African slaves of batuques, the colonial governor responded cultural were divided into several "nations" and to allow their manifestations he would only enhance their differences. Moreover, and ritual would make slaves singing, dancing gatherings argued, for sad status." Faithful to his several their hours "forget even after the 1814 uprising, to the problem, the Count, approach slave For the in Salvador.51 in two sites permitted batuques slaveowners an invitation to rebellion, this policy represented African since this cultural communion would increase solidarity. of the to the as a proof And they last insurrection pointed of African to unite. In their to the "nations" ability petition than that showed a different they picture painted by governor, Arcos:

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the One can see getting Negroes as they did before; streets they wish and continuously use whistles even speak openly in our language which on the events in Haiti to the discourse revolutionary John's day there would be not one

at night on the together in their idioms what they and other passwords. They of their and comment revolts know of and they speak they of saying that point by2 St. white or mulatto alive. talk

As a concession to the owners, the governor the use of prohibited in that year's firecrackers festivities of St. John's Day (Dia de Sao Joao), a measure that did not the slave masters. appease in a way grasped the slaves the split enough, Interestingly between the colonial and the master state and during the class, 1814 revolt elected Arcos their in the same "prince,"53 they fashion that many so-called rebels considered primitive everywhere the King the "Fount of Justice."54 But it goes without saying that the ultimate Ponte and the master was class goal of Arcos, one and the same: the maintenance of the slave society. The differences between the Count of Arcos and the Bahian slaveowners reached a delicate the last after slave rebelpoint lion of colonial On February Bahia. a reli12, 1816, following in the Reconcavo districts of Santo slaves celebration, gious Amaro and Sao Francisco do Conde burned down several engenhos, the village attacked of Santo Amaro and killed a number of whites. The uprising lasted four days and terrorized the plantation zone until it was crushed militiamen and loyal slaves under by local the command of a planter, Colonel Barreto, Jeronymo Muniz Fiuza who later received the title of "Savior of the Rec8ncavo" for his actions.55 after the defeat of the insurgents Immediately (again Hausa slaves), the planters a meeting the to evaluate organized situation and put pressure on Arcos to abandon his of strategy slave In view of the governor's control. resistance, Brigadier Felisberto Caldeira Brant Pontes (a military sugar planter, and future of Barbacena), the wrote central governor, Marquis colonial in Rio de Janeiro, in the name of the planter government class: Las Casas soliciting from the throne of Spain its royal mercy on behalf of the Indians and Wilberforce and others advocating in the Parliament the extinction of are English slavery, without doubt benefactors of mankind. . . . But that same in the mouth of a Viceroy in Mexico or a Governor language of Jamaica would provoke the murder of all and EnglishSpaniards men and would cause the execration of the universe. Such is, neither more nor less, our situation.56 He further that in Bahia, "the negroes are the beloved regretted sons of the Representative of the Sovereign."57 Placed between a rebellious slave class at the bottom and a colonial deaf governor to their at the Bahia's complaints top, planters undoubtedly advanced their and refined class their unity argument. Very soon their differences with the Portuguese state at other levels beyond

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and probably more important than the question of slave control lead would to the movement of independence. For the moment, some immethe planter's insistence however, apparently produced he had been wrong, not convinced the diate results. Although did enact some antislave legislation.58 governor The Count of Arcos left office in 1818 without to face having In and confront the inevitable criticism. another slave revolt in power were spent much of his last two years fact, suffocating in a movement the 1817 liberal revolution Pernambuco, that, for of its social soon became a nightmare because implications, in classes of northeast Brazil.59 His efficiency the privileged with the absence of any of this the repression movement, coupled two years as governor slave rebellion last important during Arcos' in the debate over the two factions to pacify certainly helped slave control. revolt The 1816 slave colonial slave was the last late uprising in Bahia. later the region Six years would become the battlefield in revolution of a different the 1821 liberal Following struggle. and the attempts made to the return of D. Joao to Portugal Oporto, of of the presence revoke obtained the privileges Brazil because the court in the colony, a strong movement for Brazilian indepenof the dence The independence was peacefully ensued. country In Bahia, there was actual armed declared in September. however, From the conflict and Portuguese between Brazilian troops. led the fight Rec6ncavo the Bahian planters successfully against who controlled Salvador.60 the Portuguese three on at least rebelled the slaves During the war (1822-23), occurred One revolt scale. of a small but in revolts occasions, on the another of Sao Mateus in the village 1822), (February in December of the of Itaparica island (June 30, 1822) and finally in a move instigated same year a number of slaves, by the Portumore In the latter forces. Brazilian attacked incident, guese, In general, were brutally executed.61 slaves than fifty captured of in the course no important took place uprising notwithstanding, of that, it has been conflict. Because the Brazilian-Portuguese at a time a good chance to rebel that the bondsmen lost argued divided.62 was mostly when the white However, though population as in the period had never been so well-armed not united, whites the did not escape a circumstance that 1822 to 1823, probably of the slaves. perception followed situation that In any case, the uncertain political In the 1820s Bahia experislave the war did affect discipline. The first movement of some importen uprisings. enced at least in of August 25, 1826, in this decade was the insurrection tance It was led by a certain of Cachoeira. district the plantation Later in that and was quickly put down.63 "King of the Negroes" 1826 The December occurred. outbreak a more serious same year and to Piraja of figutive slaves the convergence involved revolt On the Quilombo do Urubu. of a runaway community, the formation in the a village December attacked 15, the rebels successfully of a party of Cabula. district Only two days later neighboring The slaves, armed with sent from Salvador. soldiers was thirty

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and hatchets and bows knives, pitchforks, arrows, spears, combat. But with the arrival of the first resisted successfully defeated in a forces the rebels the government reinforcements, At the quiZombo, violent battle. only one black woman, Zeferina, the attack of Cabula had been that She confessed was arrested. to weaken tactic the military as a diversionary only planned to rebel intended Africans the In of Salvador. capital, strength immethe police because but they did not, on the 18th, probably and even mulattoes free Africans several arrested slaves, diately received Of the punishment in the plot. of being involved accused and the would-be Zeferina it is only known that by the rebels, the As for labor. to forced condemned were Antonio, leader, Yorubawas it of the profile ethnic insurrection, clearly as a site for a candomb d, served The runaway hideout dominated. seized and among the a Nag6 religious objects by the place, in used several articles drums and were authorities arms, candomble rituals.64 slave of small a series and 1831 1827 Between uprisings of With the exception of Bahia. the tenuous disturbed equilibrium in sugar actions these of 1830, the urban skirmishes happened are known to have revolts In 1827 two slave areas. plantation in and another on March 22, Cachoeira one in taken place: seems to have been September. whose date of suppression Abrantes, and of raids of a series was comprised The Abrantes uprising was the More robberies threatening runaways. organized by of of March 22, the slaves On the evening rebellion. Cachoeira and merchant owned by the wealthy the Engenho da Victoria, planter the foreman and his and killed rebelled Pedro Rodrigues Bandeira, owned of three slaves the brother. nearby engenhos, Apparently, were The insurgents, also however, participated. by Bandeira, and militiamen. of two soon defeated Thirty cavalry regiments by is unknown.65 fate but their were arrested slaves 17 and 22, on April occurred Slave uprisings again in Cachoeira Bahian village of the southern On June 15 of the same year, 1828. took rebellion In December yet another a revolt. suffered Ilheus of Santo Amaro. But the most district in the Rec6ncavo place on March 11. A in Piraja of the year started outbreak serious of the area and several attacked engenhos group of Nag6 slaves of Manoel where they stormed the buildings to the coast, proceeded of and victim of the province da Cunha, a former president Ignacio African Some of Cunha's revolt a previous (1814). newly-arrived to which returned the rebel slaves novos) party joined (negros where a battle After its destination. reached but never Piraja the uprising soldiers and eight were killed wounded, twenty slaves was controlled. of the province, the president the Santo Armaro revolt, After aid for the a plan of military of Camamu, designed the Viscount from the reto numerous thus complaints Rec6ncavo, responding for called dated December The plan, residents. 10, 1828, gion's detacharmed in several "more than seven hundred men effectively were enThese measures one to the other."66 close ments very on March 20, 1829. of Justice forced by an order from the Minister

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de engenho, not entirely satisfied with the senhores In addition, in helping for interest to raise funds declared their the plan, new did not prevent control But more military more troops.67 of the province As the president incidents. realized, troops was function rebellions from occurring; their not could stop And the was a general revolt.68 to prevent rather president owned of three engenhos On October correct. 16, 1829, the slaves and burned a sugar mill Jose Maria de Pina e Mello, by the Colonel were local and civilians before militiamen three killed people still another the situation. After this outbreak able to control the in end of took before the revolt year, probably place November.69 areas from the rural In 1830, shifted the arena of rebellions of Salvador. to the city 10, about Early in the morning of April three hardware de ganho assaulted stores, supplied twenty negros a and long knives, and attacked themselves with fifteen swords more than 100 served as a slave market. that warehouse There, of and some eighteen novos the insurgents Yoruba negros joined to get indeath because with them were punished they refused to invade the Africans tried volved. numbers, Augmented in their The garrison a soldier in the process. a police station, killing down the attack more soldiers resisted until them, putting joined were pitilessly the Africans the revolt. Defeated, lynched by the has been explained as a This uprising and the populace. policemen on a better to start for revolt scheduled rehearsal organized was preceded 13, but it has not been shown why the latter by April three days before.70 an almost suicidal action In the course of the five 1830, it would be the following years more constantly to the free and freed people who would contribute antiThese movements included in Bahia. agitation political and rebellions secessionist riots, revolts, military Portuguese But although and black creole movements of protest. free mulatto the early insurrecfree peoples' dominated slave 1830s, agitation revolts which never In addition to military tions disappeared. of the province, the national the security seriously jeopardized of cutting federal includwas in the process spending, government to overcome financial in order defense ing provincial budgets, and such cuts Bahian crisis. systematically opposed presidents In on the slaves. rested of course, their invariably argument, of War to from the Minister orders October 1831, upon receiving Barros Paim rebutted: President the cavalry disband troops, here in order to have some cavalry It is indispensable troops of because to help crush promptly for, any movement of slaves . . . becomes even the smallest their number, uprising great in this region.71 very dangerous It was maintained. the cavalry for the slave system, Fortunately when Bahia in value four its would 1835, later, years prove of its history. slave the most organized uprising experienced known as the maZ6 or The revolt of January 1835, best 24-25, to begin an urban affair. Planned was basically Muslim revolt,72

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da Guia, the Senhora the day of Nossa at dawn on January 25, before some hours was denounced revolt Nag8 woman, by a freed from knew about the plot Guilhermina Roza de Souza. Guilhermina informed who had been a Nago freedman, also her husband, by from her information additional She received in the port. sailors whose husband da Cruz, a Nag6 freed comadre Sabina washerwoman, of a tell and who could in the seditious was involved movement, where some of in the heart of the city, house on Guadalupe Street, the of the Informed had a meeting.73 situation, rebels the to carry out of police the chief ordered of the province president of A group in the and increase city. patrols investigations da Praga the Ladeira slaves soldiers, civilians, patrolling loyal two-storied at a suspicious-looking arrived streets and Guadalupe de Sa Marinho tailor mulatto owned by the Domingos building mulatto his floor with first lived on the Falcao. Domingos a son and his de Santa Anna, Nag8 slave, Joaquina companion, Afrito two manumitted the Zoja or basement He rented Ignacio. and Aprigio, the Nago Manoel Calafate (Manoel the Caulker) cans, Asked if there were Africans a bread peddler. gathered Nago-Oyo, of a it. But upon the insistence in his basement, Domingos denied the forced their the soldiers of his, Zoja. way into neighbor and the place blacks left a group of about sixty shooting Suddenly had begun.74 The revolt the soldiers." "kill shouting and headed to the their overcame The Africans opponents easily the Licutan, away, where Pacifico only a few blocks municipal jail atwas held old Muslim slave, They unsuccessfully prisoner. the guard of the jail. they attacked Repelled, tempted to invade From there in the same square. the government they propalace and of other at the doors ceeded south, conspirators knocking Victoria names. their Street, elegant Midway to the shouting the original another they attacked Together party. group joined the artillery which garrisoned of Sao Pedro, the fortress troops, in the attack. losses serious first their They then suffering and proin Mouraria barracks another struck returned downtown, to once again where they attempted ceeded to the palace square, one more success. but without the jail, They attacked capture station before on Agua de Meninos, where the police converging with the Municipal and final battle decisive took place. Cavalry after more than fifteen minutes of fighting, Here, many blacks were killed and wounded. Others surrendered. Some who attempted drowned or were killed to escape by swimming either by the sailors to the close to the waters sent of a war frigate strategically into the woods and hills barracks. escaped Many Africans cavalry Agua de Meninos. surrounding on occurred rebellion of this action The last, early poignant armed with of the the morning 25th when six slaves, pistols, to and were said house master's their burnt and knives, spears destito their to reach Agua de Meninos. have attempted Halfway forces now had complete The legal were killed. nation they official the revolt, over the situation. control reports During and two civilians five over soldiers, Africans, claimed, fifty died.75

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followed the revolt an that 1835 The inquiries produced allow us to analyze more closely the of data which abundance and a few other participants, leadership, ideology organization, of this in the first of slave life not discussed part aspects article. was planned and executed the rebellion There is no doubt that and freedmen. To begin slaves with, they by Muslim Africans, the in the Muslim costumes to which streets wearing fought charms referred authorities as "war garb."76 Many had protective and in their or papers Muslim prayers around their necks with and Aprigio the At the loja subletted by Manoel Calafate pockets. a banner, "four small books found ritual rings, police garments, and two sheep, written in Arabic," handwritten probably papers, refor The leadership reflected the sacrificial purposes.77 in at least three Muslim teachers or mestres hierarchy. ligious Manoel old Africans cases were called "fathers." respectfully for example, and a particiwas undoubtedly a preacher Calafate, officials in the uprising.78 to court records, According pant found in his loja a as if forming with velvet, crossed cloth a pole with a white The and cloth. small bags made of leather with three banner, of the banner an oath was that in front declared black Ignacio Manoel taken that they would not die in bed, but with Father Calafate.79 known in the African Another religious community as man, Pacifico, name was Bilai. African his that in court declared Licutan, name Pacifico's that to his knowledge, the judge stated Irritated, that he The slave was Licutan. in African responded courageously lost The authorities him. name pleased whatever choose could that "Bilai" of the fact was, and is a very common Muslim sight or Pacifico on the Defeated name. (or Licutan, battlefield, He simply in court. his with defied Bilai) oppressors dignity the seen land he had never man's in the "white that declared shown to him."80 'Arabic papers' is the 1835 rebels influenced that Islam profoundly To say in the Muslims African all that to not participated say that concluded of the time, The authorities revolt. however, in took part a Muslim necessarily be to known African any Pierre more recently Later the rebellion.81 Verger, students, war which of a holy dimensions to the outbreak the elevated West in same period of the Bahia the in jihads reproduced and translated The Arabic Africa.82 recently by Monteil papers was a jihad that the idea to support no evidence Reichert give from verses contained The in Bahia 1835.83 in papers only fought some included the Qur'an or were good-luck charms, strong although comes from One of them read: millenarian "Victory proclamations. the believers."84 for News Good is close. God. Victory be revolt could in the function the Muslim Nevertheless, of other than the expectation from a different angle approached of religious the lines between declarations reading revolutionary

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of influence of direct or emphasizing the question writings even if holy wars. external, The of the Muslims was basically The function organizational. and of disciplined in Bahia, African Muslim community composed and of cohesiveness an example offered dedicated believers, Africans to emulate. were able Africans other resistance that or other economic a home, without without a family, without found in Islam a means and despised by the white element, security sense their Thus organized, and minds. bodies their to discipline to reach the collective the individual transcended of deprivation when Africans in character, even when religious level. Evidently, to hostile in a society to perform their ritual, decisively joined associative African manifestations, politically, they were acting to organize, their that they were contrasting in the sense ability of their disthe situation their and therefore power, against to be understood This political lives. dimension, always rupted the did not escape of power in a slave in the context society, of The president of the slave of the guardians system. perception had a that it "was undeniable that declared the province they that is no evidence there because any they stole goal, political their masters."85 killed or secretly organizahouse, Religious at the Africans' of course, tion and leadership, attempt permeated the was also In Hobsbawm's of power. seizure terms, religious of the movement. language Bahian in previous a role had played rebellions, Religion Islam itself namely in 1816 and 1826 and in the 1807 conspiracy. outall Hausa-dominated behind as the force has been suggested in those content of the But our knowledge breaks. religious we can assume that Of course, rebellions is vague. supernatural of slaves to rebel.86 the decision influenced always protection a followed on the other The 1835 uprising, hand, clearly very involved which of intense apparently activity religious period This phenomenon is evidenced conversion to Islam. massive by the Some of them were authorities. seized Arabic by the papers of but many were copies Muslim hands, educated written by very sketched verses of the Qur'an and Islamic by painfully passages of 1835 Mohammedans.87 Therefore, many of the fighters neophyte recent converts. were ardent If they fanatics. were not religious the rebels Nevertheless, one of the at least them to attack one would have expected were, in their of Salvador churches dozens of Catholic against struggle secular This did not happen. the infidels. symbols They attacked arms to obtain of the status and guardians They attempted quo. their struck. barracks the several from Concerning they supplies Arabic is known. ultimate papers "Mysterious" goal, very little the Towards the end of February revealed little. Albino, 1835, some of the latter, translated of a Bahian attorney, Hausa slave to the these evidence writings linking only explicit providing the but since of the insurgents, and the immediate purpose plans his to determine it is impossible have not been found, originals the plan was to unite to Albino In any case, according accuracy. in Cabrito of neighboring of Salvador with slaves slaves engenhos

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and kill in the white man's land." Some papers "everybody could be used by the rebels that without harm; designated paths one of them was signed Mala Abakar, the commandant of by a certain had some consistency-the whole Albino's operation. testimony too much consistency--with other sources of information. perhaps denounced Guilhermina's for the aim of the husband, example, as an attempt "to take over the land, whites, uprising killing cabras . . . leaving and creoles the mulattoes as their lackeys One witness and slaves."88 declared to have heard the war lackeys "death to the white, the Nago."89 cry of the rebels: long live the Yoruba, not the Muslims. this Long live Nevertheless, provides little evidence to evaluate the kind of society Bahia might have become under the rule of the Nagos. Most Africans were Yorubas, the prosecuted probably reflecting of the slave trade at the time. But a variety of other pattern ethnic were also the two mulattoes groups represented, including who lived in the house where the Ethnic started.90 uprising were not lacking tensions in the context of 1835. not as Although as the African-Creole the African differences, profound community was also divided. Africans denounced the Nago to Many non-Yoruba be proud and to other slaves. The Hausa despise freedman, "he hated those declared, Domingos Borges [the Nago] and peoples have business didn't with them."91 Besides the ethnic tensions, of Islamic movement conversion also created For divisiveness. a Yoruba slave of Ijebu origin, said that Carlos, example, the Nagos insurrection them well,

who know how to read and are associated the with neither shook the hands of the others, nor treated them kafiri with disdain.92 [atheist] calling

The literate were Muslims who most found Nagos certainly themselves to be superior to the majority of their kinsmen who still the traditional Yoruba religion of the Orishas. practiced Of course, Christian slaves were not spared from Muslim criticism. Muslims accused the slave for example, of adoring wood Marcelina, in the for the are not saints."93 altar, "[Catholic] images the words of Africans in court be considered should Evidently, with care. But even the consistence and multiplicity of so, their uncover the tensions the African arguments undermining community. Court records also shed light on other the pressures facing African of such as the tense interaction Salvador, community between whites and Africans. Salvador was not characterized by racial of its inhabitants. of Slaves, segregation course, lived in the basement of the same houses their masters generally when they did not rent rooms from fellow free Africans. occupied, The latter lived in districts and streets where white "citizens" of various social resided as well. The governmental positions the city the municipal the military house, palace, barracks, jail, the cathedral were all located from the houses of only a few steps Africans. Bahia's fit almost Actually, capital perfectly Hobsbawm's "ideal" insurrectionary city:

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In the ideal the authorities--the rich, city insurrectionary the aristocracy, or local the government administration--will . . be as intermingled of the with the central concentration poor as possible.94 I believe is a fundamental of this in the analysis parameter to urban disorder. Salvador as structurally The absence conducive of racial enhanced the geographical certainly segregation not Africans' of isolated deprivation. Although perception were supposed to respect their white neighbors Africans spatially, On one hand, --whoever their this they might be--as superiors. situation fed racial an important factor tensions and constituted a priviof insurrection. On the other it gave repression hand, in terms of information about the lives of Afriposition leged and cans. the white Afroproceedings, During prosecution Brazilian witnesses were able to give more or less inforprecise mation about the habits, and characters African behavior of their From behind the windows of their houses neighbors. they could see who lived with whom, who visited who whom, who organized batuques, behaved This and who was "uppity" toward whites.95 adequately closeness the authorities to carefully direct eventually helped free the African the repression community, against especially African element. After the Africans. Five were 1835, a war was declared against condemned to face the firing and dozens of others received squad, of up to 600 lashes, sentences life with forced work, imprisonment were deported and so on. Free Africans in great deportations numbers and many others to Africa so as to returned spontaneously the climate of terror on the African escape imposed community. Manumitted Africans could no longer rent houses, freely organize in candombles or be Muslims. The authoriparticipate batuques, ties the importation of drums, "war drums" as they prohibited viewed and controlled to and from Africa.96 The them, trips of the free Africans was defended of the repression president by the province on the following grounds: * . . since the African freedmen were not born in Brazil, and have a language, and even religion customs different from the and since events Brazilians', they have declared by the latest themselves the of enemies our existence, political [they] therefore must never be considered Brazilian and enjoy Citizens the guarantees offered by the constitution.97 free were more "Brazilian" the Africans than Nevertheless, could realize. First of all, their own civil status as president freedmen of bondage in Brazil until presupposed long years enough of manumission. Even if money could be earned to pay for a letter free that of meant a certain manumission, they received period services to the master and a degree of assimilation into the loyal white man's ways. even became For slaveowners. Many freedmen the Nag8 Gaspar da Silva involved Cunha, a tailor example, deeply in the 1835 insurrection, owned a Congo slave who was called Jose,

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a tailor. Jose declared that he did not have permission also to with his master because "he was a in Muslim gatherings participate slave and contraband to the others."98 Apparently Gaspar played his role of master as any white man would. were "Brazilians" Take African freedmen in other too. ways, of naming practices. the question Among the Africans prosecuted of Salvador there were fifteen freedmen of district in the first which only four had African names--eleven could only be identified In contrast, all seven Christian names. slaves by their proseAfrican was known only by the cuted carried names; not one slave If we take the naming practice Christian name.99 as a measure of the conclusion cultural would be that freedmen were assimilation, from their The possession more distant names roots. of Christian a symbol of African and surnames probably constituted achievement and since in the slave freedmen borrowed their names last society, from former that meant a continuation of dependency masters, through other means. like and Belchior da Silva Free Africans Cunha were Gaspar individuals the African Both had within privileged community. been manumitted deceased Manoel da Silva Cunha. master, by their and owned a Congo slave, and Belchior was a Gaspar was a tailor mason who owned a house, to Gaspar and part of which he rented other Africans. Both lived with women. Belchior was an Yet, member of the Muslim community and little that active doubt exists he participated in the 1835 revolt. on the other hand, Gaspar, to write he was a neophyte was learning Arabic: Muslim. Why did men join these the rebellion? Far from being an academic questhis same puzzle Belchior's tion, intrigued companion Agostinha: She told Belchior that he had come from his land as a captive and became a freedman and that the whites didn't molest here; one earned and that his money, ate and drank--this is [him]; had never Belchior had the inclination to go to why she said 100 100 war. . But the fact was that he did make war against the white man. Why? The recent on slave in the New World and literature resistance even the literature on social in general has shown that movements of rebellions been the most "europeanized the leaders have usually elements." Fanon's of African for example, colonialism, analyses have suggested that the subjugated native stanadopted European dards to judge himself--but standards he is usually found by these Liberal scholars have such as Oberschall wanting. completely the theory dismissed of the marginal-man More speleadership. in the area of slave collective James noted cifically resistance, that the leaders of the Saint were those who Domingue revolution most from "the cultural of the profitted advantages system." Mullin's of Gabriel Prosser's competent analysis conspiracy concluded that there was a direct connection between acculturation and slave More graphically revolt.101 and in his peculiar clarity, Sidney Mintz wrote:

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The house slave who poisoned her master's . . . had family first to become the cook. The runaway slaves who family created viable communities . . . needed to learn the techniques of cultivation in an alien environment. And the slaves who armed revolts in the marketplace had first to produce plotted for the market, and to gain permission to carry their produce there.102 In short, resistance a certain of integration presupposed degree into the slave The more integrated the slave, the more society. tense his relations with the oppressors as a result of his dubious status. The African freedmen were located in the extreme of this A man like for example, in Islam spectrum. Gaspar, sought refuge in order to overcome this contradictory status. It was resistance to being further absorbed into the "white man's subordinately land" that led him to Islam, and not the latter led which to resistance. made his communion, however, Religious outrage collective. The key role played by sometimes African in freedmen privileged 1835 and in previous rebellions has misled students of these movements on important issues. It is on the basis of the prothe revolt was fought both by slaves and freedjihads argument: it does not as slave In an revolt. men, therefore, qualify otherwise valuable review of the literature, R. K. Kent affirms that African resistance will a minute only be understood through research of "intra-African" relations. Thus he dismisses marxists without considered the rebellious who, any further analysis, instances of "class But Kent's assertion that the struggle." "class model does not explain the male revolt because struggle" some of the Muslim leaders constituted a privileged group is as than the vulgar marxism that he attacks.03 A much simplistic more serious to the "class and this challenge struggle" argument, time a challenge from within the marxist would itself, community be the question of whether the Africans in Bahia a represented class or not; or a more general on whether slaves--and question for that matter subordinated "class"--can be any pre-industrial, viewed as a class.104 There are at least two more or less established routes that one could follow to discuss those questions. One would be the identification of slaves as a class that they held a only in the sense in the slave relations of production, that their specific position labor was appropriated in a specific surplus by the master-class fashion akin to the slave mode of production and last, but not that their status involved the masters' least, juridical property over them. In this the concept of a slave class is rights case, arrived at as a result of a theoretical It only means construct. that slaves formed a class in itself. Another of analysis route would require that the concept of class include the existence of class In this consciousness. sense the members of a class must their in that class and the interests that recognize membership hold them together other in other against words, they classes; must constitute a class Slaves in Bahia, of for itself.10

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in the first can be said to have been a class course, meaning of were the term. as we have slaves seen, However, profoundly Creole slaves never participated influenced by ethnic allegiance. slave and free Africans in African slave rebellions. Besides, rebelled as Hausas or Yorubas--"long live the Nag8" was the often heard in the streets of Salvador in 1835. It seems that slogan as an ethnic not as a class. Africans their battles group, fought do not qualify to be called a "class" in the Therefore, they of the term. Should we then exclude the idea of a second usage I do not think so. "class First, by the same token struggle?" as a heuristic "class" can serve to discuss that preconcept "class capitalist people, struggle" properly qualified may also their In addition, I agree with serve to identify struggles.106 historical E. P. Thompson's that in concrete argument experience, the of class and not precede the concept must be derived from, of of class Thus there is the possibility process struggle.107 of class the existence of a mature class, "class without struggle" 8 for itself. of the slave the majority Africans in Bahia constituted class, of Africans the first half of the and the majority throughout nineteenth were this slaves. Although century quantitative measurement is important, The quality it should not mystify us. of the slave class is of greater It was foreign and importance. its culture could not be directly traced to the slave experience in the New World. The slave was understood, to reacted experience and in some sense transformed interaction by means of a tense and institutions live and the between African cultural symbols "white man's" culture. The African in Bahia unavoidtrajectory of a "slave the flourishing consciousness" as such, ably impaired of a consciousness derived from the position of slaves immediately in the social relations of production. this was But, ironically, the force of Bahian slaves and it behind the greater militancy class helped produce a "hotter" struggle.

POSTSCRIPT:

THE POLITICS AND ECONOMICSOF SLAVE RESISTANCE

is divided between two classes], the [The Brazilian population masters and the slaves. . . . There exists a third, the free this is but few in number, and in proletariat; relatively . . . The class of masters reality compromised by both others. concentrates all influence in Brazil. If the . . . political as a class has little it is also true proletarian importance, that are free for men, and have no grounds they complaint because all the constitutional and they possess rights without whatever of color or caste, privileges, any bias custom. Two great interests tend to reunite and conglomerate all the members of an association so constituted of . . . the sentiment and the need to conserve dominion over the slaves. nationality, Correio (Rio de Janeiro, 1833). Official

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became a nation in 1822, Brazil After politically independence of stateits each with divided project groups, by competing lent of free class of a growing The presence people building. and elements With liberal of the period. to the tensions fuel of the free for the following members appealing elite dissenting reduced their with own dissatisfaction and the latter's masses in tensions social social in a slave chances formation, exploded Bahia was no excepbetween 1830 and 1840. conflicts, especially This situation era of turmoil. in this tion disunity expressed as a free classes and the Brazilian classes the privileged within Nevertheto revolt. chance did not miss this slaves whole--and If political on it. we must not put too much emphasis less, it slave influence did revolts, post-Independence instability of 1807, 1809, 1814 and conspiracies the rebellions cannot explain their and 1816. compared to the frequency; Perhaps it can explain occurred 1822 there after of pre-Independence four revolts Bahia, and conspiracies. fourteen at least uprisings never slaves African that as Morton has argued, It is true, the reached the free classes within when the differences rebelled also it is But and armed conflict of possible rioting.109 point in Bahia never ceased disorder of social to argue that the climate to 1822 and 1839. between in one single Moreover, to exist year to revolt best lost their that the slaves conclude opportunities from the resourcefulness unlimited is to expect period in this free African It is to assume that bondsmen and their class. slave and articulated to initiate were always allies planned, ready the that I believe resistance. collective violent However, can be better revolts of slave of the timing approached question from a different angle. not was and conspiracies rebellions of slave The timing but of conventional to the related politics dealings directly of civil at the level took place which rather to the relations in a slave of the state from the nature This resulted society. existence. bondsmen which denied formation social any political to the state or no access limited had very Slaves apparatus. authorities to the could against petition Individually, they in the their abused who continually masters especially power, the risks but one can imagine of urban slavery, context implicit to act collecin such actions. they were not allowed Evidently, to the "introduction" their More often, the law. before tively the of law enforcement, the i.e., came through state agents order of public as guardian of the police The function police. in their association collective of slave the repression meant it and religious level, and, at the individual gatherings batuques the direct when outside of each slave meant control power of the were But if the police was in public. or when the slave masters it was level at the individual of collective the tool control, the power of the master that counted. still of the sum and the result and conspiracies Rebellions being to occur at tended and will of individual they outrage, synthesis The met. control and personal of collective times when relaxation social was undermined control of collective by the constant degree

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1822 and in Bahia between revolts and barracks' agitation causal a more that is at this It 1838. precise juncture revolts and slave between instability political relationship "decontrol" personal established. can be Nevertheless, slave of the in factor fundamental the constituted timing uprisings. slave realized the of As the by 1831, province president to happen with more frequency tended "disorders" religious during On these at Christmastime.110 occasions, festivals, especially were investing masters while had their slaves days off usually The lack of of their own. and celebrations their time in feasts shared meant that slaves master cultural hegemony over the African their from own their with dates folks, those separated auspicious and free slaves met other slaves On such owners. occasions, and and batuques, their own festivals celebrated Africans, the talked and about their system. against grievances sang Violent and executed rebellions. Eventually, they also planned the with break did not mean a complete to be sure resistance It was of the African activities community. rhythm of festive collective of slave of the exercise the continuation rather power, at such times In addition, means. of slave by other "politics" in one concentrated was relaxed, the free generally population into Thus, in Bahia, transformed easy victims. seemingly place, New York in of the New World as well--e.g., areas and in other to be tended in 1831--revolts Jamaica in 1736, 1712, Antigua In sum or Sundays. and other holidays for Christmastime scheduled the of slaves, act extreme of the most the political timing deand state of the the politics revolt, disregarded greatly of civil the calendar with in coordination its strategy signed society. had its it also of slave was a politics resistance, If there from two be treated can basically This "economics." question of the state there was the general on one hand, perspectives: was the there on the other in Bahia hand, business and, sugar and execuand human resources material by any planning required tion of an uprising. Bahia this of first the in article, As I discussed part followed an era of sugar prosperity, by a depression experienced of the decades four first and the late the eighteenth during the demands of sugar this nineteenth period, Throughout century. of subsistence and the crisis adversely agriculture production became Work routine of the slaves. the lives affected probably the 1820s diet and slave more intense worsened, during especially related was more intimately of course, This situation, and 1830s. that the city it cannot be forgotten life. to plantation However, More sugar meant more areas. linked to the rural was organically to carry, and rum barrels more sugar crates in the port, activity and so on. sedan chairs more people more boats to be sailed, using slave for account alone cannot Nevertheless, overexploitation of the New societies revolts as it did not in other plantation of of the "economics" which leads us to the second level World,111 resistance. collective

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the the the of in heart export-economy lay Though sugar of Salvador it was the city that the best Rec6ncavo, presented for the organization of the most organized structural conditions In the city the presence of free Africans offered rebellions. for an infrastructure resistance. slaves Any planning, prosethe freedmen's and mobilization could not be done without lytism for geographical Nor could wide mobility. relatively capacity houses without the use of the freedmen's be arranged slave plots for arms and money hiding hideouts as meeting sites, places, and relifor cultural, slaves and as locations social fugitive In addition, there was the role of the various gious interaction. for or carpenters, trades as blacksmiths skilled whose people could the rebels with arms; and the religious example, provide for protection and who on many who furnished amulets "specialists" and This wealth the leadership. of material occasions constituted On as a powerful human resources stood weapon as well. symbolic of the African slaves and freedmen's the multiplicity one hand, of the profound roles economic in the city demonstrated dependence the on their on the other the society hand, it symbolized labor; of an independent the masters' without rule. life possibility to No subordinated tries This last class is fundamental. point a given order without to replace social feeling prepared destroy of old order. This an alternative the symbolic possibility of could flourish in the specialized environment society hardly The latter, the engenhos.112 the determinant however, represented of the slave nucleus system. the basis The fact of power in constituted that the Rec8ncavo the judgment of many conspirators. It was on Bahia did not escape and resided the plantations that the bulk of the slave population that a decisive blow against it would be only from there slavery in many of the revolts of this could come. period Accordingly, an articulation the insurgents between the city and the attempted rural areas. from rural But the response slaves was limited, of a general therefore the development impairing uprising.113 African slaves and freedmen enormous faced which difficulties the of their blocked success revolts--their with differences and so on--but the greatest tensions of these creoles, intra-group was the nature were facing of the enemy. The Africans an enemy a in its divided succeeded in who, ranks, though organizing "Brazilian front" in Brazil them. Class control was not a against like tenuous in Haiti with its high rate of absenteearrangement In Brazil ism. was struggling for the mainthe master class of a hegemony which had profound a tenance roots. It was building in order state it to command, had a national and it project the areas of tension isolated and conflict, to impede successfully of its critics. a coalition of course, was built on the Slavery, of such success. The presence basis of slaves the politichecked of the free cal ambitions subordinated and the presence classes, of the latter the revolt restrained of the slaves. The tensions and conflicts of both sectors of Brazil curbed the disintegration of secessionist in a period The tendencies. classes privileged became more and more united the under of "bottom-up" threat

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Bahia's slave revolts and conspiracies between 1807 "anarchy." and 1835 occurred in this broad Brazilian historical context. the question of slavery was there, but the Africans in Throughout, Bahia proved that this was not only one of maintaining question institution of property, the "sacred" but one of securing and to work a troublesome slaves who resisted putting property, being a variety of collective forms, objectified through including violence. NOTES This paper was originally in 1980. written na Bahia de 1750 a 1930," 1Katia "Os pregos in Mattoso, du C.N.R.S. Internationaux Histoire du Quantitative Cdlloques F. W. O. Morton, "The Oct. Brdsil (Paris, 1971), 167-182; pp. Conservative Revolution of Independence: and Economy, Society in Politics Ph.D. Bahia, thesis, 1790-1840," unpublished of Oxford, see 1974, views, University I; for opposite Chapter Micea Buescu, no fin do seculo "A economia baiana Verbum XVIII," 31:2 (June 1975), pp. 35-44. 2Morton, op. cit. 3Catherine "The Portuguese Tobacco Trade and Tobacco Lugar, Growers of Bahia in Late Colonial in D. Alden and W. Period," the Socioeconomic Dean, eds., Essays Concerning of Brazil History and Portuguese India (Gainesville, 1977), pp. 26-70; Anonymous, "Discurso historico introductivo com natureza de preliminar da comarca da Bahia," Anais da BibZioteca descripgco Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (hereafter ABNRJ) 27 (1905), p. 339. 4Antonio Barros de Castro, "Escravos e senhores nos engenhos do Brasil" Ph.D. dissertation, of Campinas, unpublished University 1976, p. 75. 5Katia Mattoso, et societe a la fin du au Bresil "Conjoncture XVIIIe siecle: et salaires a la veille de la Revolution des pris des Ameriques Alfaiates, Bahia, 1798," Cahiers Latines 5 (JanvierThis piece Juin, 1970), food prices and wages pp. 3-53. analyzes in the context of the Tailors' of 1798; most contemConspiracy noted the rise of food prices at the end of the porary chroniclers "Carta de Jose da Silva a Domingos Lisboa eighteenth century: Bahia 18 de outubro de 1781," Vandelli, ABNRJ, 32 (1910), pp. 494-506, passim, esp. p. 506; "Discurso preliminar," passim and p. A Bahia no s8culo XVIII (Salvador, 320; Luis dos Santos Vilhena, vol. 1969), passim. 6Vilhena, op. cit., pp. 183-186, esp. p. 185; "Carta de Lisboa a Vandelli," Preliminar," p. 502; Discurso p. 321; Johan B. Spix and Karl F. von Martius. 3 vols. (Sao Paulo, Viagem pelo Brasil, II, 1976), p. 141; Maria Graham, Journal of a Voyage to Brazil (New York, 1969), pp. 144-145. 7Stuart B. "Resistance and Accommodation in Schwartz, Brazil: The Slaves' View of Slavery," Eighteenth-Century Hispanic American Historical Review (hereafter HAHR) 57:1 (February 1977), pp. 78-79. 8See "Os Pregos na Bahia," Mattoso, for a pp. 181-182,

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of the Bahian economy between 1750 and 1850. periodization of the Reconcavo to the president 9Petitions of by the planters the province, May 19, 1831. Arquivo do Estado da Bahia (hereafter da Provincia de 1831: (hereafter PP), Levante AEBa), Presidencia do Imperador, For the social movements of mago 2867. Abdicaqao "A elite baiana the period see Joao Jose Reis, face os movimentos sociais: Revista de Historia 54:108 1824-1840," Bahia, (1976), pp. 341-384. 1824-1835, mago 1269. 1AEBa, PP, Cramara de Cachoeira, "A elite "The Conservabaiana," 11Reis, Morton, pp. 354-358; tive Revolution," pp. 326-329. fell after was 1823, but production 12Sugar prices drastically see 383. cit., Morton, 2, p. maintained; op. Appendix Sugar revived in 1826-27, two years of many revolts after prices briefly in the plantations. 13Thomas Ewbank, Life in Brazil (New York, 1856), p. 439. 14For a good discussion of the different of slave meanings treatment see "The Treatment of Slaves in Eugene D. Genovese, Different Countries: Problems in the Application of the Comparative Method," in Laura Foner and E. Genovese, in the eds., Slavery New World (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1969), pp. 202-210. 15On the expansion of a free colored in late population eighteenth see A. J. R. RussellBrazil, through nineteenth-century and Herbert S. Klein, Wood, "Colonial Brazil," "Nineteenth-Century in David W. Cohen and Jack P. Greene, Neither Brazil," eds., Slaves Nor Free and 309-334. For (Baltimore, 1972), pp. 84-133 a captaincy linked to Bahia until see Luis Mott, 1820, Sergipe, e indios em Sergipe: Anais "Brancos, 1825-1830," pardos, pretos de Historia 6 (1974), and "Pardos e pretos em 139-184, pp. do Instituto de Estudos Revista Brasileiros 1774-1851," Sergipe: 18 (1976), 7-37. A Bahia no seculo 16Vilhena, XVIII, 1, pp. 55, 503, 505. "Colonial 17Russell-Wood, Brazil," Accioli, 97; p. Ignacio Memorias e poZlticas histdricas da Bahia, 6 vols. annotated by Braz do Amaral (Salvador, n. 26, p. 235. 1931), 3:228, 18Thales de Azevedo, Povoamento da cidade do Salvador, 2d ed. (Salvador, 1969), p. 232. 19"Carta de Lisboa a Vandelli," see also "Discurso p. 502; preliminar," p. 345. 20Katia "Os escravos na Bahia no alvorecer Mattoso, do seculo XIX: Estudo de um grupo social," de Histdria Revista 97 (1974), p. 117. "I discuss these in an unpublished "Notes on questions paper, the Slave Population in Nineteenth-Century Bahia" (1978). Memorias 3, p. 228, n. 26. 22Accioli, The Atlantic A Census Slave Trade: Curtin, 23Philip (Madison, 1969), pp. 240-242. 24Patrick "The Slave Trade in the Bight of Benin, Manning, in H. A. Gemery and J. S. Hogendorn, The Un1640-1890," eds., common Market 107-141. For the Yoruban (New York, 1979), pp. see also Curtin, presence among captives op. cit., p. 145, and the but of Pierre Flux et extensive, ill-organized study Verger,

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reflux de la traite des negres entre le GoZfe de Benin et Bahia de Todos os Santos (Paris, 1968). and the Growth of a 25See Stuart B. Schwartz, "Elite Politics in A. J. R. Russell-Wood, ed., Peasantry in Late Colonial Brazil," From Colony to Nation (Baltimore, 1975), Shepard pp. 133-154; On Forman, The Brazilian Peasantry (New York, 1975), Chapter 2. see the excellent of Patricia and vagrancy, study banditry "Order and Violence: Social Deviance and Social Aufderheide, Control in Brazil, 1780-1840" Ph.D. dissertation, (unpublished of Minnesota, 1976), pp. 84-101 and passim. University 26Jose "Memoria topografica, Joaquim de Almeida Arnizau, commercial e polftica da villa de Cachoeira da prohist6rica, vincia da Bahia Revista do Instituto Histdrico e (1825)," (hereafter RIHGBr) 25 (1862), p. 134. Geogrdfico Brasileiro 7Joaquim Ignacio da Costa to Conde da Ponte, January 31, 1809. AEBa, Cartas ao Governo, vol. 216. 280n Salvador see Azevedo, 0 povoamento, and in particular Katia Mattoso, Bahia: a cidade do Salvador e seu mercado no sdculo XIX (Sao Paulo, 1978). 29Mattoso, "Os escravos na Bahia," pp. 125-126. 30Vilhena, A Bahia no seculo XVIII, 1, pp. 93, 127, 129-130; 2 Daniel P. Kidder, Sketches of Residence and Travels in Brazil, see also Donald On occupations vols. (London, 1845), 2, p. 25. Pierson, 1942), pp. 38-39; Russell(Chicago, Negroes in Brazil and Klein, "Nineteenth-Century Brazil." Wood, "Colonial Brazil"; see Graham, Journal of a Voyage, p. 133. On street work activities 31Spix and Martius. Viagem 2, p. 141. Os africanos no Brasil (Sao Paulo, 32Raymundo Nina Rodrigues, 1932), pp. 156-157. 3 "Devassa do levante de escravos ocorrido em Salvador em 1835," Anais do AEBa, 38 (1968), and "Pecas processuais do levante dos Malds," Anais do AEBa, 40 (1971), helped to reconstruct this For further evidence, see Joao Jose Reis, "Slave Revolt picture. in Bahia, 1790-1840," thesis, of unpublished Master's University Minnesota, 1977, pp. 16, 24. 34James Wetherall, Stray Notes from Bahia (Liverpool, 1860), p. 54. Emphasis was given in the original text. In Roll Jordan Roll the (New York, 1974), Book 2, Part 20, Eugene Genovese discusses collective and rhythmic nature of slave labor as a form of checking overexploitation. 35Katia Mattoso, "A prop6sito de cartas de alforria," Anais de Historia A similar pattern was found for the 4 (1972), pp. 23-52. early eighteenth century by Stuart B. Schwartz, "The Manumission HAHR 54:4 of Slaves Brazil: in Colonial Bahia, 1684-1745," (November 1974), pp. 603-635. the president 36In 1837, for example, a slave woman petitioned of the province to oblige her master to accept her self-purchase: Francisco de Souza Paraizo to the Minister of Justice, President vol. Presidencial, AEBa, PP, Correspondencia September 13, 1837. 683, fol. 227v-278. 37"Devassa do levante," passim. 38Schwartz, "Resistance and Accommodation," p. 77.

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"The see F. W. 0. Morton, and black 390n mulatto troops, Studies Journal in Bahia, 1800-1821," of Latin American Military (hereafter JLAS), 7:2 (November 1975), pp. 249-269. A Bahia no seculo XVIII, 1, pp. 108-109. 40Vilhena, do levante," 41Devassa p. 62. 42The "Tailors' 1798, included only Brazilian-born Conspiracy," one This one exception. with and free slaves perhaps people, the the conspiracy. who denounced was an African Noting exception if wondered the governor absence of blacks among the conspirators that exists between pardos and the "opposition reflect this didn't A conflitos: See Istvan tens5es, "Contradigoes, Jancs6, pretos." de Livre Docencia, U. Federal tese Baiana de 1798," Inconfidencia the ideological In any case of 1975, Fluminense, scope p. 105. movement was usually in this less the participants privileged of time. of their in the context radical Inspired by the ideas to and the French revolution, the French philosophers they sought in end of racial discrimination free trade, achieve independence, abolition bodies and military offices and, most important, public no movimento See Katia of slavery. Mattoso, Presenga francesa D. and Luis Henrique de 1798 (Salvador, baiano democrdtico 1969), revoluciondrio do movimento das id4ias estudo Tavares, Introduqao de 1798 (Salvador, 1959). was of the most known rebellions reconstruction 43The factual Howard Prince, can consult The reader scholars. made by several PhD disserta1807-1835" in Bahia, "Slave Rebellion unpublished and Flux et Reflux and Verger, Columbia 1972, tion, University, the I will trace Here cited. there the simply bibliography some new archival of the lines outbreaks, introducing general can be seen on the of rebellions location material. Geographical endnotes. these map preceding da senzala, 1959), (Sao Paulo, pp. 186-188; Moura, Rebelioes da Policia, Avulsos in 1845, for a conspiracy AEBa, Documentos de Insurreigao, uncatalogued. Suspeita Bahia 7 de Anadia, do Conde da Ponte para o Visconde 5"Officio de 1807," ABNRJ 37 (1918), de abril p. 451. de Anadia, do Conde da Ponte para o Visconde 46"Officio Bahia, 16 de junho de 1807," ABNRJ 37 (1918), p. 461. "Slave Rebellion," 47Prince, pp. 102-103. Pretos e indios em Sergipe," 48Mott, "Brancos, Pardos, pp. 175-176. da Costa to Conde da Ponte, January 31, 1809, 49Joaquim Ignacio vol. 216. AEBa, Cartas ao Governo, "Slave Rebellion," 50Prince, p. 114. Flux et n. 34; and Verger, Memorias, 3, pp. 235-236, 51Accioli, Reflux, pp. 330-331. "Slave Rebellion," p. 115. p. 331; Prince, op. cit., 52Verger, of the Haitian influence of the symbolic evidence For further "A see Luiz Mott, and Afro-Brazilians, revolution among Africans a sobre a El-rei de uma representagao a proposito escravatura: Estudos de Instituto do Revista no escravatura Brasil," Brasileiros 14 (1973), "Brancos, 133, n. 3; and Mott, pp. 128, Pretos," Pardos, p. 160.

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"Order and Violence," 53Aufderheide, p. 76. Rebels 54See Eric (New York, Hobsbawm, Primative 1965), pp. and passim. 119-121, Flux et Reflux, See Eduardo A. de Caldas 55Verger, p. 333. de pretos na Bahia," RIHGBa 10:29 "Levantes (1903), pp. Britto, an interesting of the fear for 91-94, among the description the 1816 revolt. after residents Reconcavo de pretos," "Levantes 56Caldas p. 90. Britto, 57Ibid. 3, p. 235, n. 34. Memorias, 58Accioli, Guilherme 590n this movement see the excellent study of Carlos 1817 (Sao Paulo, 1972). Mota, Nordeste na Bahia, 2d da Independencia Histdria 60See Braz do Amaral, and documents for a description ed. (Salvador, 1957), pertaining in Bahia. conflict to the Luso-Brazilian da senzala, "Slave RebeZioes Prince, 151-152; 61Moura, pp. FZux et Reflux, Rebellion," p. 333. Verger, pp. 128-129; "The Conservative Revolution," 62Morton, p. 280. da Bahia, dos acontecimentos "Cronica 1809-1828," 63Anonymous, Anais do AEBa 26 (1938), p. 91. no Brasil, Os africanos 64Nina Rodrigues, p. 76. mago 1279. 1824-1835, 65AEBa, PP, C&mara de Cachoeira, de Camamu to the Court, December 17, 1828. Visconde 66President fol. 32v-33. vol. Presidenciat, 678, AEBa, PP, Correspondencia The plan is registered in AEBa, PP, Correspondencia vol. expedida, 164. 6, fol. 67Camamu to the Court, December 7, 1829, ibid., fol. 175. 68Camamu to the Court, December 17, 1829, ibid., fol. 32v-33. 69Camamu to the Court, November 5 and December 7, 1829, ibid., fols. 164, 175. 70See Prince, "Slave Rebellion," pp. 149-150. 71President Barros Honorato Paim to the Minister of War, October vol. 1831. AEBa, PP, Correspondencia Presidencial, 14, 19v. 680, fol. 72The meanings of the term male have been the subject of a on the ridiculous: severe sometimes Braz do debate, bordering for instance, ma Zei (bad law). to Amaral, suggested According FZux et Reffux, from the Yoruba Verger, p. 352, n. 24, it derives word imaZe which simply means Muslim. 73"Devassa do levante," p. 61-64. do levante," 74"Pegas processuais passim. 75The best, correct of the revolt account though not entirely is Prince, "Slave Rebellion," pp. 152-170. for instance, of Lufs Tavares Macedo in "Pegas 76See, testimony do levante," processuais p. 40. Other examples of sheep sacrifices 77Ibid., are found p. 13. in "Devassa do levante," pp. 6-7. "Slave n. 80 argued that Nina 78Prince, Rebellion," p. 202, to the role of Manoel Calafate. Rodrigues gave too much importance The documents in "Pecas processuais do levante" published proved that Nina was right. In fact, Prince's of conclusively profile the leadership follows the logic of the authorities of the closely

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the latter, for prosecution considered do time; reasons, cabeqas levante or leaders as any African about whom they had material a rank and file found Hence, proof of participation. participant wounded would have been considered leader. do levante," The oath as mechanism 79"Pecas p. 13. processuais was present of group cohesion in many slave rebellions of the New Gerald Mullin, World. and Rebellion See, for example, (New Flight Prosser in 1800; p. 145, for the Gabriel York, 1972), conspiracy David B. Gaspar, "The Antigua Slave of 1736: A Case Conspiracy of Collective William and Mary Resistance," Study in the Origins 35:2 (April Sacred oath as a step of 1978), Quarterly p. 321-322. ritual into a maroon community is discussed in Barbara acceptance "The of Jamaican Maroon Kopytoff, Development Ethnicity," Caribbean 22:2-3 1976), Quarterly (June-September p. 44; and "The of Jamaica Maroon Societies," William Early Political Development and Mary Quarterly 35:2 (April 1978), p. 304. 80See Pacifico's trial in "Devassado levante," My pp. 84-85. thanks to Professor Lansine of History, Kaba of the Department of Minnesota, who shared with me his of University knowledge African Islam. 81See R. K. Kent, "African Revolt in Bahia: 24-25 January 3:4 (Summer 1970), 1835," Journal of Social History p. 355. 82This tradition historiographical began at the turn of the with Nina Rodrigues and others, the priest century especially Etienne "Os Males," 72:2 Brazil, RIHGBr, (1909), Ignace pp. 65-126. The most recent statement in this tradition is Verger, Flux et RefZux, which follows Nina Rodrigues' word for arguments word. 83Vincent de 25 documents arabes des Males de Monteil, "Analyse Bahia Bulletin de L'Institute Fondamentale (1835)," d'Afrique Tome 29, Serie Rolf Reichert, Noire, B, No. 1-2 (1967), pp. 88-98; ed. and trans., Os documentos drabes do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia (Salvador, 1970). de 25 documents 84Monteil, arabes," p. 94. "Analyse 85President Francisco de Souza Menezes of to the Minister 1835. PresiJustice, 31, AEBa, PP, January Correspondencia vol. 197v. dencial, 681, fol. 86The role of religion as the language and mediating factor between the social and the decision to rebel was in the setting center of many revolts of the New World. from egaliInspired tarian from the Bible, Sam Sharpe led the 1831 Jamaican messages rebellion: see Mary Reckord, "The Jamaica Slave Rebellion of in R. Frucht, Black in the New World (New ed., 1831," Society The case of Nat Turner is well known--see York, 1971), pp. 50-66. Herbert Nat Turner's Rebellion Aptheker, (New York, 1966), esp. Turner's "Confessions" in Appendix. Also for the U.S. and emphaAfrican see William C. Suttle, "African survivals, sizing Jr., Survivals as Factors in American The Slave Religious Revolts," Journal 56:2 In the of Negro History 1971), (April pp. 97-104. context of the great Haitian voodoo had an important revolution, role: The Black 86-87. More secularly, James, Jacobins, pp. Afro-Mexican Catholic brotherhoods a slave financed (confrarias)

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in 1612; see in Mexico City Edgard S. Love, "Negro conspiracy Journal Resistance to Spanish Rule in Colonial Mexico," of Negro In Brazil, colored 52:2 89-103. 1967), (April pp. History of accommodation and peaceful were a factor brotherhoods demands; and especially "Colonial see Russell-Wood, Brazil," pp. 122-126, A Study in in Colonial Brazil: Black and Mulatto Brotherhoods HAHR 54:4 (November 1974), Collective Behavior," pp. 567-602. Os documentos 87See Reichert, drabes, passim. do levante," 62. 88"Devassa pp. 130-131, 89Ibid. 90There no evidence to the mulatto is whatsoever support de Sa's He was just the involvement in the uprising. Domingos landlord of free African rebels. For a comparison do levante," of 91"Devassa p. 136 and passim. of ethnicity rebellions elsewhere see Monica the role on slave and Guianas," "Ethnic Slave Rebellions in the Caribbean Schuler, Journal 3:4 (Summer 1970), of Social pp. 374-385. History do levante," to Mr. 92"Pecas p. 33. My thanks processuais me a Yoruba speaker from Nigeria, who helped Oyedele, Oyebamiji the word 'kafiri,' in the court records as identify misspelled gavere. do levante," 93"Devassa p. 70. 94Eric Hobsbawm, Revolutionaries p. 223. (New York, 1973), do levante," 95"Devassa p. 137 and passim. "Pegas processuais do levante," p. 60 and passim. of the repression 96The best discussion that followed the 1835 is Prince, revolt "Slave Rebellion," pp. 214-224. 97President Souza Martins to the Minister of Justice, February 14, 1835, AEBa, PP, Correspondencia vol. fol. Presidencial, 682, 10-lOv. 98"Devassa do levante," p. 75. 99Ibid., p. 94 and passim. 100Ibid., p. 71. Black Skin White Mask (New York, and Fanon, 101Franz, 1967), The Wretched of the Earth (New York, Oberschall, 1968); Anthony Social and Social Movements Cliffs, N.J., Conflict (Engelwood 1974), (New York, 1967), Chapter V; C. L. R. James, Black Jacobins and Rebellion, Chapter 5. p. 19; Mullin, Flight 10 Sidney Cahiers "Toward an Afro-American Mintz, History," d'Histoire Mondiale 13 (1971), p. 321. in Bahia," The argument "African Revolt of 103Kent, p. 356. class is presented Jurema, Insurreigoes by Aderbal struggle negras no Brasil (Recife, 1935). in Eric Hobsbawm, "Class Consciousness in 104See the discussion in Istvan and Class ed., Meszaros, History," of History Aspects Consciousness See also Theotonio dos (New York, 1972), pp. 5-21. sociales Santos, n.d.). (Mexico, Concepto de clases 105In pre-industrial societies unmisonly the dominant classes a class or a class constitute conscious takenly fur sich group; this occurs in conflict situations (as was the case of especially Bahia in the period discussed See Immanuel Wellerstein, here). The Modern World System (New York, 1974), pp. 351-353.

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106E. P. Thompson, Class "Eighteenth-Century English Society: Class?" Without Social 3:2 Struggle (May 1978), History pp. 148-149. 107Ibid., p. 149. 108For a contrast with this in the Brazilian historiposition see Nordeste and Reis, "A elite Mota, 1817, ography, 3, p. p. 345. baiana," "The Conservative p. 280. 109Morton, Revolution," the Cor110Camamu to Court, 24, AEBa, PP, 1831, January vol. 140. respondencia Presidencial, 679, fol. llMarion An Analysis "Towards Freedom: of Slave Kilson, Revolts in the United 25 (1964), States," 175-187, pp. Phylon that in the U.S. slave pp. 183 and 187, has argued especially revolts tended to take place in areas reputed to have better slave life conditions. 112In his analysis of the "would-be" in Charleston, Vesey plot South Carolina, C. Wade, "The Vesey Plot: A Recon1822, Richard in J. H. Bracey, A. Meier and E. Rudwick, sideration," Jr., eds., American The Question (Belmont, Cal., of Resistance Slavery: of urban slavery 1971), (diversip. 136, found a similar pattern fication of trades, access to freedom, a more independent life for the slave, in contrast to the conclusions of this but, etc.), he concludes that "a concerted revolt was paper, against slavery less in a city than in the countryside"; he links actually likely in the city the "wider latitude" to slaves with their to tendency accommodate Wade failed to consider the contra(ibid., p. 138). and even of social nature of urban slavery, movements in dictory general. 113The links between urban and rural slave movements in Bahia are also in Stuart 0. Schwantz, in emphasized Sugar Plantations the Formation 1550-1835 Bahia, Society: of Brazilian (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 468-488.

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