A slave is often permitted by his owner to seek a master more to his liking; for this purpose a note is given, declaring that the bearer has leave to enter into the service of any one, upon the price which the master demands being paid by the purchaser. With this the slave applies to any individual of property whom he may wish to serve; owing to having heard a good report of his character towards his slaves, or from any other cause. This is a frequent practice, and at least admits the possibility of escape from a severe state of bondage to one that is less irksome.
A considerable number of slaves are manumitted at the death of their masters, and indeed some persons of large property fail not to set at liberty a few of them during their own life-time. A deed of manumission, however simply it may be drawn out, cannot be set aside; a register of these papers is preserved at the office of every notary-public, by which any distress which might be occasioned by the loss of the originals is provided against, for the copy of course holds good in law. A slave who has brought into the world, and has reared ten children, ought to be free, for so the law ordains; but this regulation is generally evaded; and besides, the number of children is too great for many women to be enabled to be benefited by it[217]. The price of a new-born child is 5l. (20,000 mil-reis,) and the master is obliged to manumit the infant at the baptismal font, on the sum being presented. In this manner a considerable number of persons are set at liberty, for the smallness of the price enables many freemen who have had connections with female slaves to manumit their offspring; and instances occur of the sponsors performing this most laudable act. Not unfrequently female slaves apply to persons of consideration to become sponsors to their children, in the hopes that the pride of these will be too great to allow of their god-child remaining in slavery[218]. Thus by their own exertions, by the favour of their masters, and by other means, the individuals who gain their freedom annually are very numerous.
The comforts of slaves in different situations are widely disproportionate; whilst some are doomed to an existence of excessive toil and misery, from the nature of their occupations and the characters of their masters, others lead a comparatively easy life. It is true, that in countries of which the workmen are free, the daily labour is unequally divided, but their wages are proportioned accordingly, and as each man is a free agent he seeks that employment to which his bodily and mental powers are befitted. The slave is purchased for a certain purpose, and is to follow the line of life which his master has chalked out for him; he is not to be occupied in that which he would himself prefer, or at any rate his wishes are not consulted upon the subject. The price for which a slave is to be obtained, and the convenience of the purchaser are oftener consulted than the fitness of his bodily strength to the labour which it is his lot to be ordered to perform. Besides the obligation of following an unsuitable trade, or at any rate of following one which he has not chosen, he has to endure the still incomparably greater grievance of bearing with a tyrannical, an inconsiderate, or a peevish master, whose commands are not to be called in question, whose will is absolute, and from whom the possibility of appeal is far removed, and that of redress placed at a still greater distance. Masters are punished by the payment of fines, for cruelty to their slaves, if any account of such behaviour should reach the ear of the Ouvidor of the province; but I never heard of punishment having been carried farther than this trifling manner of correction. The emoluments which proceed from this mode of chastising the offenders weigh heavily in its favour; the injury which the slave has received is not, I am afraid, the only cause which urges the exaction of the stipulated penalty; of this the slave does not receive any part.
All slaves in Brazil follow the religion of their masters[219]; and notwithstanding the impure state in which the Christian church exists in that country, still such are the beneficent effects of the Christian religion, that these, its adopted children, are improved by it to an infinite degree; and the slave who attends to the strict observance of religious ceremonies invariably proves to be a good servant. The Africans who are imported from Angola are baptized in lots before they leave their own shores, and on their arrival in Brazil they are to learn the doctrines of the church, and the duties of the religion into which they have entered. These bear the mark of the royal crown upon their breasts, which denotes that they have undergone the ceremony of baptism, and likewise that the king’s duty has been paid upon them[220]. The slaves which are imported from other parts of the coast of Africa, arrive in Brazil unbaptized, and before the ceremony of making them Christians can be performed upon them, they must be taught certain prayers, for the acquirement of which one year is allowed to the master, before he is obliged to present the slave at the parish church. This law is not always strictly adhered to as to time, but it is never evaded altogether. The religion of the master teaches him that it would be extremely sinful to allow his slave to remain a heathen; and indeed the Portugueze and Brazilians have too much religious feeling to let them neglect any of the ordinances of their church. The slave himself likewise wishes to be made a Christian, for his fellow-bondmen will in every squabble or trifling disagreement with him, close their string of opprobrious epithets with the name of pagam (pagan.) The unbaptized negro feels that he is considered as an inferior being, and although he may not be aware of the value which the whites place upon baptism, still he knows that the stigma for which he is upbraided will be removed by it; and therefore he is desirous of being made equal to his companions. The Africans who have been long imported, imbibe a Catholic feeling, and appear to forget that they were once in the same situation themselves. The slaves are not asked whether they will be baptized or not; their entrance into the Catholic church is treated as a thing of course; and indeed they are not considered as members of society, but rather as brute animals, until they can lawfully go to mass, confess their sins, and receive the sacrament.
The slaves have their religious brotherhoods as well as the free persons; and the ambition of a slave very generally aims at being admitted into one of these, and at being made one of the officers and directors of the concerns of the brotherhood; even some of the money which the industrious slave is collecting for the purpose of purchasing his freedom will oftentimes be brought out of its concealment for the decoration of a saint, that the donor may become of importance in the society to which he belongs. The negroes have one invocation of the Virgin, (or I might almost say one virgin) which is peculiarly their own. Our Lady of the Rosary is even sometimes painted with a black face and hands. It is in this manner that the slaves are led to place their attention upon an object in which they soon take an interest, but from which no injury can proceed towards themselves, nor can any through its means be by them inflicted upon their masters. Their ideas are removed from any thought of the customs of their own country, and are guided into a channel of a totally different nature, and completely unconnected with what is practised there. The election of a King of Congo (which I have mentioned in chapter 13,) by the individuals who come from that part of Africa, seems indeed as if it would give them a bias towards the customs of their native soil; but the Brazilian Kings of Congo worship Our Lady of the Rosary, and are dressed in the dress of white men; they and their subjects dance, it is true, after the manner of their country; but to these festivals are admitted African negroes of other nations, creole blacks, and mulattos, all of whom dance after the same manner; and these dances are now as much the national dances of Brazil as they are of Africa. The Portugueze language is spoken by all the slaves, and their own dialects are allowed to lay dormant until they are by many of them quite forgotten. No compulsion is resorted to to make them embrace the habits of their masters, but their ideas are insensibly led to imitate and adopt them. The masters at the same time imbibe some of the customs of their slaves, and thus the superior and his dependant are brought nearer to each other. I doubt not that the system of baptizing the newly-imported negroes, proceeded rather from the bigotry of the Portugueze in former times than from any political plan; but it has had the most beneficial effects. The slaves are rendered more tractable; besides being better men and women, they become more obedient servants; they are brought under the controul of the priesthood, and even if this was the only additional hold which was gained by their entrance into the church, it is a great engine of power which is thus brought into action.
But in no circumstance has the introduction of the Christian religion among the slaves been of more service than in the change which it has wrought in the men regarding the treatment of their women, and in the conduct of the females themselves. A writer of great reputation on West-Indian affairs, states that the introduction of the marriage ceremony among the slaves of the colonies of which he treats “would be utterly impracticable to any good purpose;” and again, that he who conceives that a remedy may be found for polygamy “by introducing among them the laws of marriage, as established in Europe, is utterly ignorant of their manners, propensities, and superstitions[221].” Is it not that by the masters these things are considered to be of little importance, and therefore unworthy of much trouble? As long as the work is done, little else is thought of. Where the interest of the master is concerned, the “manners, propensities, and superstitions” will soon be overcome. I hope that at the present day such opinions do not generally exist. All men in the same state of barbarism treat their women in the same manner; the evil lies not with the race of beings, but in the dreadful situation to which this one is reduced. Why, therefore, not attempt to improve and to benefit the individuals of which it is composed?
The slaves of Brazil are regularly married according to the forms of the Catholic church; the banns are published in the same manner as those of free persons; and I have seen many happy couples (as happy at least as slaves can be) with large families of children rising around them. The masters encourage marriages among their slaves, for it is from these lawful connections that they can expect to increase the number of their creoles. A slave cannot marry without the consent of his master, for the vicar will not publish the banns of marriage without this sanction. It is likewise permitted that slaves should marry free persons; if the woman is in bondage, the children remain in the same state, but if the man is a slave, and she is free, their offspring is also free. A slave cannot be married until the requisite prayers have been learnt, the nature of confession be understood, and the Sacrament can be received. Upon the estates the master or manager is soon made acquainted with the predilections of the slaves for each other, and these being discovered, marriage is forthwith determined upon, and the irregular proceedings are made lawful. In towns there is more licentiousness among the negroes, as there is among all other classes of men[222]. The passion of love is supposed only to exist in a certain state of civilization, and this may be granted without at the same time declaring that negroes are incapable of lasting attachment, without supposing that the regard of each sex is mere animal desire, unconnected with predilection. That species of affection which is heightened until personal possession is almost forgotten, doubtless is not felt by human beings who are in a state of barbarism; but still a negro may be attached, he may fix upon one object in preference to all others. That this is the case, I can vouch; I have known and have heard of many instances in which punishments and other dangers have been braved to visit a chosen one; in which journies by night have been made after a day of fatigue; in which great constancy has been shewn, and a determination that the feelings of the heart shall not be controuled.[223]
The great proportion of men upon many of the estates, produces, of necessity, most mischievous consequences. A supply is requisite to keep up the number of labourers. The women are more liable to misconduct[224], and the men imbibe unsettled habits; but if an adequate number of females are placed upon the estate, and the slaves are trained and taught in the manner which is practised upon well-regulated plantations, the negroes will be as correct in their behaviour, as any other body of men; and perhaps their conduct may be less faulty than that of other descriptions of persons, who have less to occupy their time, though their education may be infinitely superior. That many men and many women will be licentious, has been and is still the lot of human nature, and not the peculiar fault of the much injured race of which I speak.
I shall now state the manner in which the Africans are transported from their own country to Brazil, and the disposal of them on their arrival in South America; the characters of the several African nations with which the ships are loaded; the condition of those who are employed in Recife,—upon the sugar plantations,—in the Mata or cotton estates,—and in the Sertam or cattle districts.
As the voyage from the coast of Africa to the opposite shores of South America is usually short, for the winds are subject to little variation and the weather is fine, the vessels which are employed in this traffic are generally speaking small, and are not of the best construction. The situation of captain or master of a slave ship is considered of secondary rank in the Portugueze merchant-service, and the persons who are usually so occupied are vastly inferior to the generality of the individuals who command the large and regular trading vessels between Europe and Brazil. The slave ships[225] were formerly crowded to a most shocking degree, nor was there any means of preventing this; but a law has been passed for the purpose of restricting the number of persons for each vessel. However, I more than suspect, that no attention is paid to this regulation,—that means are made use of to evade the law. On the arrival at Recife of a cargo of slaves, the rules of the port direct that these persons shall be disembarked and taken to St. Amaro, which is an airy spot, and sufficiently distant from the town to prevent the admittance of any infectious disorder, if any such should exist among the newly-imported negroes; and yet the place is at a convenient distance for the purchasers, St. Amaro being situated immediately opposite to Recife, upon the inland bank of the expanse of waters which is formed by the tide on the land side of the town. However, like many others, this excellent arrangement is not attended to, and even if the slaves are removed for a few days to St. Amaro, they are soon conveyed back to the town. Here they are placed in the streets before the doors of their owners, regardless of decency, of humanity, and of due attention to the general health of the town. The small pox, the yaws, and other complaints have thus frequent opportunities of spreading. It is probable, that if the climate was not so very excellent as it is, this practice would be discontinued, but if it was not put a stop to, and the country was subject to pestilential complaints, the town would not be habitable.