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.