THE FIGHT AGAINST SLAVERY AND RACISM IN CEARÁ (1838-1884) BY TSHOMBE L. MILES B.A. CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK M.A., BROWN UNIVERSITY, 2002 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AT BROWN UNIVERSITY PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND MAY 2008 © Copyright 2008 Tshombe Miles This dissertation by Tshombe Lee Miles is accepted in its present form by the Department of History as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date____________________ _________________________ Robert Douglas Cope, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date_____________ ____________________________ Evelyn Hu-Dehart, Reader Date_____________ ____________________________ Anani Dzidzienyo, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date_____________ _____________________________________ Sheila Bonde, Dean of the Graduate School iii Vita Tshombe Miles graduate work at Brown University is in the field of Latin American history and Afro-diasporic studies. He holds a second Master degree from the City College of New York, in American Studies and Latin American history. Tshombe also holds a bachelor’s degree in International Studies from the City College of New York. He has worked as an adjunct Lecturer at the City College teaching courses in World Civilization and US history. He was also a Social Studies teacher in the public school system for seven years. Tshombe has been traveling and doing research in Brazil since 1992 and has lived in Brazil since 2003. He has carried out several research projects in Ceará, Bahia, and Maranhão and has been awarded several scholarships to study in Brazil including a Winston Fellowship and two Tinker fellowships. iv Acknowledgment This project really started some fifteen years ago under the tutelage of Dr. Fernando who encouraged me to study abroad and to pursue my undergraduate thesis on a comparative study of race relations of the United States and Brazil. It was her intellectual support and her helping me obtain a Winston fellowship that started my love affair with Brazil. She deserves a special thanks and acknowledgment. Other sources of intellectual support from the City College of New York came from Gerardo Renique (my first intellectual role model), Juan Flores, David Jaffee, (two scholars who introduced me to many great writers and who are generally excited about the life of the mind), my homeboy Keith Mayes who was my comrade at City College. At Brown University I like to thank Robert Cope who is an enormous intellectual and great person. I am proud and happy to have him as an advisor and to be his student. Also I want to thank Anani Dzidzienyo for being a great teacher and reading several drafts of the dissertation and for being a wonderful mentor. A special thanks is in order to Evelyn Hu-Dehart, who went way beyond the call of duty to support and help me. She not only opened her home to me but also helped me obtain a Teaching Assistantship, which gave me the chance to work on the dissertation. She is the definition of the type of scholar/teacher and the type of support that a graduate student dreams of, many thanks. Also I want to thank Rhett Jones for introducing me to the many debates in the Black Atlantic world and for also introducing me to many important texts in the field. Thanks are in order to James Green for reading many drafts and making brutal but often-valuable criticisms, even if sometimes I disagreed. I want to thank the Kinory brothers, Ari Ariel, Tony Marin, Bongani Nglunga, the Secor family, and a special shout out of appreciation to Rubain Dorancy. I want to thank you all for being true friends. Finally I want to thank my family, my Mom and Dad who have given all their love and are responsible for anything right that I have done in my life; A special mention is in order to my brother Niger, I love you. I want to acknowledge my wife Denise Costa, my partner and love. I want to thank her family and friends for their generosity. Also a special acknowledgment is in order to my daughter Beatriz who soon will join this struggle called life. You are an inspiration. v Table of Contents List of Charts Page vii Glossary Page ix Introduction Page 1 Chapter 1 A Historical Overview of Race and Ethnicity In Ceará’s Labor Market Page 20 Chapter 2 Weapons of the Weak: How Slaves Fought For Freedom In Ceará Page 57 Chapter 3 Black Leaders and Their Concept of Freedom in Nineteenth Century Northeast Brazil Page 99 Chapter 4 Reading Race, Class, Identity, and Freedom in The Great Drought of 1877- 1879 Page 140 Chapter 5 The Meaning Of Freedom and the Fight From Above Against Slavery in Ceará Page 176 Conclusion Page 214 Bibliography Page 219 Appendix Page 228 vi List of Charts Chapter One Chart 1.1: page 30 Income from Cotton in Ceará (1803-1807) Chart 1.2: page 30 Fortaleza-Export in Kilos Chart 1.3: page 37 Population of the Captaincy of the Pernambuco and her Annexes (1763) Chart 1.4: page 38 The Population of the Captaincy of Pernambuco and her Annexes (1782) Chapter Two Chart 2.1: page 66 Letters of Freedom from Taua (30 total) Chart 2.2: page 88 Run away Slaves Apprehended in Vila Vicosa, 1817-1823 Chapter Three Chart 3.1: page 108 Slave Trade Between Maranhão and Africa Chart 3.2: page 108 Slave Trade in Major Slave Ports from 1801-1839 Chapter Four Chart 4.1: page 142 Ceará State Obituary Records (1870-1879) Chart 4.2: page 143 Major Droughts in Ceará Chart 4.3: page 144 The Population of Ceará Before the Drought Chart 4.4: page 145 Cattle Production: Before, during, and after The Great Drought, 1877-1879. Chart 4.5: page 150 Number of Slaves Exported from the Province of Ceara, 1872-1880. Chart 4.6: page 155 vii Part of the Credit Went to the Following Cities Chapter Five Chart 5.1: page 192 Program of the Libertador Chart 5.2: page 207 The Dates of Emancipation in the Cities of Ceará 1883-1884 viii Glossary Agregado-A landless squatter, sharecroppers, day laborers, living on an estate of a landowner Caboclo-An “uncultured” Sertanjero usually somehow associated with a person of indigenous ancestry Cabra-A dark skinned mulatto, the word literally meaning is goat Cearense- A native from Ceará Creole-A person born in the Americas and not in the “Old World” (Europe, Africa, or Asia); this word is often also used derisively to describe a person of African ancestry Mestiço/a-A person of mixed racial ancestry Mulatto/a-A person of mixed European and African ancestry, this term literately means mule Morador-A landless peasant who derives his living from a landowner, usually in a sharecropping arrangement Pardo/a-A person of mixed racial origin that usually includes African ancestry, it is rare to hear this word used in public though it is still used in the official census. A pardo is often referred to as Moreno/a Seca-Drought Sesmaria- A Portuguese Land Grant Sesmeiro-Holder of sesmaria Sertão-The Interior; semiarid land that is distinguished from land receiving more rainfall Sertanjero-A person who lives in the interior Vaqueiro-Cowboy ix INTRODUCTION May 13th, 1888 is one of the most significant dates in Brazilian history. It is a watershed moment in Brazil because it marks the end of legal slavery. Although this day was monumental, it was, in part, a great illusion. Racial discrimination continued, and Brazilians of Afro-descent as a group remained disproportionately in the lower classes of society.1 The tensions of slavery, racism, and the meaning of freedom in Brazil began during colonial times. If the end of slavery was not necessarily a transformative moment of freedom and equality for people of African ancestry then what was the meaning of abolition? How were slavery, racism, and freedom intertwined? 1 It is not my focus to prove Brazil is not a racial democracy; nevertheless, there are a plethora of studies in the social sciences on the subject. In the past it was argued that Brazil was a racial democracy that could serve as a model for the United States. This is not a complete bibliography, but rather some of the studies relevant to this dissertation. The two most important studies that help promote the myth of racial democracy in Brazil and also promoted the idea that slavery was more benign and humane there are Gilberto Freyre’s, The Master and the Slaves, translated by Samuel Putnam (New York: Knopf, 1946) and building on Freyre’s work, Frank Tannebaum’s, who extended this idea to all of Latin America in his Slave and Citizen: The Negro Citizen in the Americas (New York: Vintage Books, 1946). In the last thirty-five years the concept of Brazil as a racial democracy has been all but destroyed. It was first challenged by an UNESCO study carried out to understand, ironically, why Brazil was a racial democracy. Instead this study helped undermine various aspects of the racial democracy theory. One of the most strident attacks on the idea was Florestan Fernandes’ study, A Integracão do Negro na Sociedade de Classes, 2 vols. 1st ed. (1st ed., São Paulo: Dominus, 1965), also see the English translation The Negro in Brazilian Society (New York: Atheneum, 1971). This study showed that cases of racial discrimination were quite prevalent, but Fernandes tended to dismiss racial problems as more economic than racial. He argued that the former slaves were ill equipped to compete with the recent Italian immigrants because of their lower educational levels.