1854 Report of Brazil's Minister of Justice on Insubordination, Assassinations, Rebellions, Conspiracies, and Runaways
[Often ended by plantation "justice" rather than by public authorities, much local violence on the part of slaves was never documented. Nevertheless, some rebellions, conspiracies, and acts of insubordination created terror in the white population or aroused the interest of a local official. In such cases they were described in police reports or even in the messages of the justice ministers read each year before August gatherings of the General Assembly. The following selection is excerpted from a ministerial report written in 1854 by Jose Tomas Nabuco de Araujo, a noted statesman of the Empire, member of several Liberal Party governments, and father of the famous abolitionist, Joaquim Nabuco. Source: Relatorio da repartido dos negocios da justisa apresentado na segunda sessao da nona legislatura pelo respectivo Ministro e Secretario de Estado Jo e Thomaz Nabuco de Araujo (Rio de Janeiro, 1854), pp. 1-6.]
In August about fourteen armed slaves assembled on the "Lavagem" sugar plantation, in the district of Pao do Alho in the province of Pernambuco, with the intention, as they themselves said, of demanding from their masters the restoration of [freedom from labor on] holy days, which has been abolished by the Holy Father. However, what they actually did at that assembly, which did not increase in size, was to atttack and rob the house of one Agostinho Tinoco, a resident in that area. This incident, coinciding with reports of other meetings planned in Santo Amaro de Jaboatao, inspired terror everywhere, and it was soon supposed that there existed a vast plot to rebel, centered in the capital and with ramifications on the sugar estates. The energy and precautionary measures which the authorities took have reestablished peace and confidence. The fourteen slaves were arrested by the police and severely condemned by the jury of No do Alho. . .
In June, almost all the slaves, amounting to eighty, of the Fazenda da Serra, belonging to Francisco Ignacio Botelho, in the municipality of Sao Joao d'El-Rei [Minas Gerais], fled to that city to request their freedom from the authorities. The energy and quick action of the police, as well as the presence of a sizable force sent to that place by the provincial president, prevented the terrible consequences which that rebellion might have caused. The frightened population was put at ease, and the mutinous slaves were controlled and restored to order.
On the night of Good Friday a slave belonging to Father Joaquirn Pereira de Barros appeared before the judicial magistrate of the district of Taubate [San Paulo] to report that on the night of April 16 to 17 the slaves of the municipalities of Taubate and Pindamonhangaba planned to revolt, taking advantage of the feast of St. Benedict, which, with the tolerance of their masters, many of them are in the habit of celebrating. The details which the slave offered revealed a well-premeditated plan, and his accusations appeared authentic. In these circumstances the authorities of the two municipalities acted swiftly to implement the necessary measures for public salvation, aided by the inhabitants of those communities who at once contributed their services, aware of the danger that threatened them all.
The slave quarters of the various plantations, where weapons intended for use in the rebellion were thought to exist, were searched, and some firearms and a large quantity of barbed arrows with poisoned tips were found. The slaves who were pointed out as the leaders fled as soon as the authorities appeared, but sixty suspects were arrested. The judicial examinations to which some of the slaves responded, which coincided with each other in nearly every detail, confirmed the existence of a plot to rebel. According to the police investigations, only two of the many prisoners could be regarded as leaders, and only then as accomplices.
It is worth pointing out that as soon as the provincial president was informed of this situation, he took every step within the range of his authority, and today' I can tell you that those municipalities, freed from the fear of the immediate danger they faced, are enjoying peace and tranquility [sic].
In January, in the district of Carangola, municipality do Presidio in Minas Gerais, the planter Jose de Lanes Dantes Brandao and his son-in-law, Manoel Jose Ribeiro, were murdered by their slaves. After the crime was committed, the slaves returned to the plantation house intending to kill the family, who were saved, however, by four workers who came to their rescue, barring the doors and resisting with firearms until they were relieved by the police. The latter arrested a cabra, who was a personal and intimate servant of the unfortunate Lanes, along with nine other slaves who were perpetrators of this crime . . .
In the district of Barbacena in the province of Minas Gerais on the plantation of Commander Mariano Procopio Ferreira Lage, the overseer was barbarously murdered by his slaves, who numbered more than a hundred.
The main quilombo of runaway slaves existing in the province of Maranhao, known as the quilombo of Maracassume, was entirely destroyed, ten slaves having been killed at the point of conflict, about the same number having been gravely injured, and forty-six taken prisoner. Among the forces of legality, two police guards were seriously wounded, and three soldiers of the 5th Infantry Battalion slightly wounded. The destruction of this quilombo, which for so long has kept the inhabitants of those places in a state of terror, and which, as a nucleus of insurrection, might have been disastrous to public order, is an important achievement for which the worthy president of Maranhao deserves praise. Steps were taken to prevent the establishment of new quilombos, and to punish the slaves and the persons who traded and maintained contacts with them, who, for the most part, were Portuguese.
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