Ira Berlin’s Generations of Captivity

In 2003 Ira Berlin synthesized the enormous bibliography on American slavery in a superb, well written, and analytically sound work. It covers three centuries of chattel slavery and frames them around four different generations of African American slaves: charter generations, plantation generations, revolutionary generations, and migration generations. A fifth one, whose experience was shaped by freedom, is also discussed briefly in the epilogue.

 

Berlin’s use of different generations of slaves as a template for his chronological narrative is a very telling choice. It indicates that he is very concerned with the slaves’ agency as a historical force shaping slavery. Indeed this is the central idea throughout the book: slaves shaped the nature of slavery in an ongoing struggle and negotiation with the masters under different conditions and in different time periods. From the autonomy and the Atlantic cosmopolitanism enjoyed by some slaves and by freedmen during the seventeenth-century Charter generations to the subjection to harsh labor regimes in tobacco, rice, or cotton plantations in later periods, African American slaves always attempted to improve their working and living conditions in negotiations that ranged from the most apparently trivial aspect of daily life to the en masse enrollment in Northern armies during the Civil War.

Another argument emerges clearly throughout the book: slavery had many different faces across the centuries, so perhaps we could talk of many “slaveries” instead of a single “slavery.” While seventeenth-century slaves living in Atlantic port cities lived in urban environments, were often born in Africa or in Europe, and had a vigorous collective life and cultural institutions, nineteenth-century slaves living in Deep South cotton plantations had a substantially different experience. And the same goes for slaves employed in the Upper South mixed farming at the beginning of the nineteenth century – their experiences were different from the former two groups. One could add that, overall, there was a global trend towards becoming “provincials, linked to place, land, and kin,” (p.202) at the same time that the American economy developed and the nation spread Westwards, especially in the South.

Meanwhile, despite the abolitionist wave that arrived during the revolutionary era to the Northern states, especially to New England, Berlin argues that the North “acquiesced” with the expansion and maintenance of slavery up to the 1800s. There were a few exceptions, however, like black northern communities, which “developed an internal coherence in ideology, leadership, and institutions that stood in opposition to the plantation society from which these communities drew many of their members” (232). Even in freedom, the descendants of African American slaves fought against the peculiar institution.

In the end, slavery collapsed with the Civil War due not only to the action of federal troops from the outside, but also to the pressure that the slaves themselves exerted from the inside at every step of the process (259). As shown in the Epilogue, after emancipation the freedom generations projected their struggle for autonomy, family, religion, and education into the future, but some of the contended issues between slaves and masters now continued to be present in terms of struggles over labor. This is how the epilogue deftly connects the book’s central argument to the main issues discussed in the literature about post-emancipation in the Americas. Specialists in American slavery and African American history will probably find some points of contention, but from my point of view this book is excellent.

 

 

 

Book: Italianos na Amazônia (1870-1950): Pioneirismo Econômico e Identidade

Marilia Emmi, Italianos na Amazônia (1870-1950): Pioneirismo Econômico e Identidade (Belém: Paka-Tatu, 2008)

Recently published, this study on Italian emigration to the Amazon applies wisely the main findings of current historiography on migration to the study of a small, but very relevant, migrant community in Northern Brazil.

According to Emmi, not a historian, but a sociologist, the timing of the arrival of Italians to the amazon cannot be explained simply by structural changes, whether in Italy or in Northern Brazil. Rather, the fundamental factor in explaining why this migration went well beyond the end of the rubber boom is the networks that families and acquaintances formed in the Amazon. Obviously, the late industrialization of the region of origin of the Italians who migrated, and the econmic niches available at the port of destination, are preconditions to understand the phenomenon, but personal decisions were guided by the information (and invitations, from 1930 on) received from successful parents in Brazil.

The different occupations and the places of settlement that the inmigrants chose is likewise very relevant. Rather than staying in Belém, several families traveled upriver and established themselves in the Lower Amazon region and in the state of Amazonas (in cities like Maues, Parintins). Most of the migrants belonged to a few families (Mileo, Vallinoto, Priante, Nicolau, Cioffi, Calderaro, Sarubbi) which came to the Amazon with a variable but existing capital, which allowed them to fill some occupation niches, mainly in commerce. Many of those families created commercial houses, following the model of the ‘casas de aviadores’ that abounded during the rubber era. However, this period ended in 1913, and large numbers of Italians arrived in the 1920s. Thus, Italian migrants worked and traded with cattle, Brazil nuts, juta, soap fabrication, and various extractive activities.

Not all immigration dates from this period. The Italians started to arrive by the middle- to late-nineteenth century, during the late Brazilian Empire. In that case, their arrival was supported by the Paraense elite, who deemed the immigrants the proper labor force to populate the region and foster agricultural production. While the arrival of these groups of migrants is proved by a large set of documents, the occupation of their descendants is not clear at all. Apparently, most Italians who went to the agricultural colonies ended up leaving or migrating to the cities. This is why the second part of this book, which deals with the post-rubber boom, becomes much more relevant than the first.

The book fills a gap in the historiography of the region, because Italian inmigrants appear prominently in different economic activities that developed in Baixo Amazonas after the rubber boom. However, the historians who read ‘Italianos na Amazônia’ will feel disappointed, because the author has not fulfilled the promising opportunities that her research materials gave her. The family trajectories, for example, have been reconstructed using sources provided by the same families. Why, then, does the author not deal more carefully with those trajectories? One has the sense that instead of using sociological techniques of research, Emmi could have reflected the richness of her sources by tracing more detailed portraits of the trajectories of the different families. Nonetheless, the book will be a very useful material for research on migration and the regional economy.

João José Reis, _Slave Rebellion in Brazil_

João José Reis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The 1835 Muslim Uprising in Bahia (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).

João José Reis uses a rich set of judicial sources to analyze the significance, the causes and the consequences of the Malê rebellion in 1835. “Bahian society breathed politics, shook in unrest, and the black community was not outside this process. (114)” Numerous revolts led by the army, slaves, republican politicians or simply supporters of a larger autonomy for Bahia occurred in the early 1800s. In addition, a permanent economic crisis aggravated the living situation of the inhabitants, both free and enslaved, of the Recôncavo, a zone where slavery was spread through all social classes (12). In this sense, Reis coincides with Stuart Schwartz in that the relation master-slave was the matrix of the Bahian society and economy (Reis 3; Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society, 466).

Reis’ main thesis makes reference to the causes of the revolt. He discards the thesis that the Malês were fierce separatists (111), as has been argued before. Instead, for him the ethnic identity of the Africans “constituted the focal point for their break with the white man’s world. (231)” This argument articulates the development of the book. First, Reis analyzed the role the Islam played in the uprising, as well as the events themselves and the goals of the revolt. A set of Africans (both free and slaves) who taught and spread Islamic ideas among the African population of Salvador is doubtless fundamental. But the most interesting part is when Reis analyzes how the ideas contained in the Koran were especially suit for slaves, given the power of written amulets on protection, victory in the revolt and other areas of importance in the lives of the oppressed (102). “Slaves and freedmen flocked to Islam in search of spiritual comfort and hope. They needed it to establish some order and dignity in their lives. (110)” In a time of economic crisis and political unrest, Islam had to be appealing as an alternative worldview because of its sympathy for the exploited, as it had proved to be in Africa. Nevertheless, the goal of the revolt was not a Bahia for Muslims, but a Bahia for the Africans. How does the author prove this?

To begin with, the author traces a clear distinction between African and Afro-Brazilian slaves. The latter, Reis argues, did not risk open defiance as often as the former (142). Not that Creole slaves never revolted, but the forms of their rebellion were different. Unlike African slaves, creoles had not experienced the trauma of enslavement, and were more prone to be emancipated. The ethnic origins inside of Africa of the slaves who revolted are likewise relevant here: most of them were Nagôs, and thus came from the area of the Oyo empire, where several wars and periods of unrest had taken place in the last decades of the 1700s and first of the 1800s. “West Africans were not as attracted to European institutions and ideas” as Angolans were (151). In addition to the explanation based on the African past, two more elements are highlighted by Reis: the inability of African slaves to form families, and the experiences of labor. Caused by the constraints of slavery and by the separation between Afro-Brazilians and Africans, families were substituted for ethnic and religious groups (186). The world of urban work also acted as a catalyst for ethnic identity. This chapter relies more heavily on travel accounts than others, but it seems clear that the urban contacts between slaves and free workers had to be a permanent source of inspiration for slaves. Some ethnic groups also tended to be clustered in specific occupations (165).

For the masters and the rest of the elite of Salvador, the revolt was traumatic. Discovering a conspiracy in the city of Salvador in which the slaves proved to be able to write and pass this knowledge to each other, in which African religions were present so clearly, and where there was a clearly designed plan for an armed revolt, was frightening. Africans were literally expelled from Brazil, the slaves punished, and the laws regulating the lives of the slaves were hardened (203, 223). This chapter remains a little blurry, I must say, because almost half of the sentences of the slaves are unknown. Nonetheless, the rights of the masters were enforced against excessive punishments (227).

In my opinion this book is a good example of how to extract a large amount of information from a limited set of sources. Aside of the information about labor that comes (or that does not come from) the sources, there is another point that remains a little unclear in Reis’ study: the goals of the rebellion. Obviously, the sources are limited in this sense because of their nature, but analyzing a rebellion without a relatively clear idea about its goals is a delicate operation. Overall though, his argument is convincing, and the book truly illuminates the world of urban slaves in Bahia.

Book: Cimarronaje en Brasil: Mocambos del Trombetas

José Luis Ruíz-Peinado, Cimarronaje en Brasil: Mocambos del Trombetas. Valencia: El Cep i la Nansa, 2003.

Éste es un excelente estudio de los mocambos (otra designación para quilombos o comunidades cimarronas) del río Trombetas, en Pará, Brasil. El autor, un excelente amigo a quien tuve la inmensa suerte de tener como profesor y prácticamente director de tesis en Barcelona, produjo un libro que resulta enormemente rico sobretodo por las tradiciones orales recogidas en él. Fue además un libro que desde mi punto de vista consolidó la ola moderna de libros sobre quilombos en Brasil. Obviamente existen muchos libros clásicos sobre quilombos producidos en Cuba, Colombia, Haití, Jamaica, y otros países, pero el trabajo de Ruíz-Peinado (junto probablemente a la colección de ensayos de Richard Price, e inspirado por las actividades de Javier Laviña) reabrió el campo para los estudios sobre quilombos a partir de la década de 2000.

El libro tiene varios capítulos introductorios que tratan sobre esclavitud, las relaciones entre Brasil y África y sobre la región de Bajo Amazonas, para entrar después en la formación y desarrollo de los mocambos del Trombetas y el Erepecurú. Combinando fuentes orales y escritas, Luigi profundiza en el significado que los mocambos tuvieron no sólo para las elites locales, sino también para sus propios descendientes, depositarios de las tradiciones orales que sus antepasados les legaron. Éstas abarcan desde la fundación de los mocambos del Trombetas, que probablemente datan del siglo XVIII, hasta la abolición de la esclavitud, en 1888.

Un libro que abrió caminos.

Book: Quilombos: Identidade Étnica e Territorialidade

O’Dwyer, Eliane Cantarino, org. Quilombos: Identidade Étnica e Territorialidade. Rio de Janeiro: FGV, 2002.

Este libro es una coletánea de artículos que busca profundizar en el conocimiento de los quilombos brasileños mediante seis estudios de caso y tres reflexiones globales. Los estudios de caso se centran en diferentes aspectos, aunque todos ellos analizan los principales elementos que forman la etnicidad quilombola. Especialmente destacable entre estos elementos es la vinculacion a la tierra y las formas de trabajo y propiedad comunitarias que en ella se llevan a cabo. Es claro que estos estudios son aproximaciones iniciales a las comunidades quilombolas, como la mayoría de trabajos recientes sobre quilombos, puesto que todos ellos se apoyan en descripciones generales de dichas comunidades.

De entre las reflexiones generales, hay que destacar la de Alfredo Wagner Berno de Almeida, quien con su acostumbrado dinamismo intelectual llama a “descongelar” el concepto de quilombo. Según este autor maranhense es necesario deshechar la definición procedente de época colonial para vincularla a la que sostienen los propios agentes sociales.

Esta coletánea gustará sobretodo a aquellos interesados en explorar los temas actuales relacionados con quilombos, especialmente desde la óptica de la antropología.