Slavery in Brazil

Since Brazil is really my area of interest in Latin America, I decided to write about the Portuguese Slave Trade and slavery in Brazil in general. Brazil is the one country who imported the most slaves during the slave trade. At a staggering 3 million + slaves imported, the Portuguese slave traders realized that by bring slaves to Brazil, they would increase their own wealth. The document about slavery in Brazil contains writings from different types of people concerning the slaves in Brazil, and how they were treated. In the first part, a Portuguese doctor gave a lecture about the conditions of the enslaved Africans. Coming from a medical viewpoint, the doctor points out the horrible living conditions that the slaves endured on the ships. They were packed in cramped spaces with insufficient water and food supplies. When one slave got sick, the illness often spread to others in an epidemic. Because of this, sick slaves were thrown overboard like damaged goods (which is exactly how the slave traders thought of them). A British clergyman who visited Brazil in the 1800s also wrote about the slaves. He saw the slave market in Rio de Janeiro and witnessed how the slaves were treated like animals rather than humans. Prospective customers went to the market to examine the slaves before making a purchase.

This document also contains newspaper articles from Brazil where people advertised the fact that they were looking to sell or rent out a female slave to serve as a wet nurse. This once again shows how the African slaves were viewed as subhuman in Brazilian society. A French doctor even advises women on how to select a slave as a wet nurse. The doctor states that while everyone would much rather have a white woman as a wet nurse, the African women are more accustomed to the tropical climate and, therefore, are better prospects as a wet nurse. However, to prevent the nursing child from contracting a disease, the slave woman was thoroughly inspected and only when found to be free of defect, purchased as a wet nurse.

Besides the hardships that slaves had to endure in transport and the selling process, they also were often mistreated by their owners. In the case of the 12 year old slave girl being sexually abused by her master. Although there was sufficient evidence that the rape had occurred, the court still ruled in favor of the master. Giving him the right to sexually abuse her if he wanted to. To me, it is completely disgusting to see that a court of law would legally allow a person to rape another and receive no punishment for it.

Thankfully slavery has been abolished in Brazil, but the effects of slavery still linger in the multi-racial society. Blacks are often barred from moving up in society because of their skin color. Black women especially are stuck in the domestic labor force of society, and having difficulties finding any other jobs. While the government often proclaims that Brazil is a racial democracy, this is not the case. This is a direct result of the slave trade that existed in the colonial period.

Primary Source Documents from Mesoamerica

I chose to analyze a document called "Testament of María (Culhuacan, 1580)".

Origins: This document was written on Thursday August 25th, 1580 in colonial Mexico. It is a testament of a woman named Nahua woman named María, but it was actually written by a notary named Juan (de San) Pedro. The document was meant to be read by her family (close relatives - as it says in the actual testament).

Motives: María is an invalid woman who is leaving instructions for her relatives on what to do with her property upon her death. She makes it clear that she is not a wealthy woman and has no goods to hand out to her family. The only thing she really has is her house. She wants her house to be sold, rather than leaving it to someone in her family. Her reason for doing so is to repay her debts with the money from the house. If there is any money left after the debts are paid off, she requests that the money be used to say masses for her.

Perspective: When documents are dictated to others to be written down, we always have to wonder if we can completely rely on the source. In this case, the person in question is the notary (who actually transcribed the document). However, since other names are listed at the end of the document as being witnesses, then we can probably rely on this document as being accurate. Concerning María, we see that she lived a simple life and did not possess a lot of wealth. And because she is instructing her family to use the profit from selling her house to pay off her debts, rather than just splitting the money amongst the relatives, this suggests something about her character. She is being honest about the money that she owes people, and she is being loyal to her fellow community members.

Text: The topic of this document is simple and because María did not possess a lot of goods to hand out to her relatives, the text is very short. The text also shows a diligence in record-keeping due to the list of names at the end of the document.

Information: This document shows that the Mesoamericans of the 16th century were engaging in record-keeping. They also understood the importance of a notary to make documents official. We are also told that María was married twice, so this shows that women were not always left as widows if something happened to their first husband. The religious aspect of colonial Mexico is also evident in this document. In the beginning of the testament, we find the phrase "for God our Lord" and near the end of the testament, she requests that if there is any money left after selling her house, "let them say masses for me".

After analyzing the text using this method, I found that I was able to better understand the document and the reasons for its existence.

Women in Andean Society

Though many often consider men to be the primary focus of the colonial period of the Andes (specifically Spanish men), the article by Elinor C. Burket, "Indian women and white society: the case of sixteenth-century Peru" proves otherwise. Yes women were often exploited by the Spanish conquistadors, but there's more to the story than this.

Women's roles in their own Andean society were very important. They were required to spin and weave items that were needed in their household, and these items were also used as a form of tribute payment. Women also gathered and prepared food, cared for animals, raised the children, and participated in harvesting and selling goods. While the specific roles of men and women were certainly divided, they were both important.

Although individuals in Peruvian colonial society had very little social mobility, there was one specific way that women could move upwards. If they were considered to be beautiful enough, they might be selected to be a Virgin of the Sun. In this case, the women weren't being exploited in a sexual sense, however they were still subjected to strict rules, including lifetime celibacy. These women were essentially sacrificed to one of their deities, the Sun. By sacrifice I don't mean literally killed, but rather committed to service of the Sun. Their lives as they once were no longer existed. They spend their days weaving and spinning clothes for idols and preparing foods for sacrifices. While I suppose this was considered to be an honor for some (to be chosen as a Virgin of the Sun), it was still something that was forced. If a woman was chosen, she couldn't say no. This, to me, just shows another aspect in which women were controlled.

In the case of the Spanish, the most notorious sexual relationship between the Europeans and the indigenous was rape. I think we can all agree that rape is an act of violence. Burkett suggests that the act of rape was actually symbolic to the conquest itself because it was a form of oppression and subjugation. Eventually, however, the Spaniards realized that if they married Inca women who were part of nobility, then their children would gain status in the Incan society. The Indians too felt that if their marriage to the Spaniards would help improve their position as well. Because of this, Indian women became vital to the Spaniards in a political sense. They learned the indigenous languages, learned how the society operated, and learned weaknesses of the society that they could use for their advantage. On the other hand, as I mentioned before, these marriages were beneficial to the women because there was a certain status that came along with being married to a white man.

Because of these relationships, we have to be careful about being so quick to accuse every Spanish conquistador of rape. Yes it occurred. But we can see that consensual relationships between Indian women and Spanish men occurred as well.