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Sept. 28, 2005 Now that I’m in Brazil, seeing the dark complexions of many of the locals and reading Brazilian history to improve my Portuguese, let me comment on the black slave trade here in bygone days. In 1492, the same year that Columbus discovered America, Jews were expelled from Spain, probably with more justification than that the Spaniards were irrational anti-Semites, as it is today fashionable to say. This expulsion was echoed by the Portuguese expulsion of Jews in 1497. In both countries, the way out for most Jews was to convert to Christianity, becoming ‘cristianos nuevos’ or ‘cristãos novos’, new Christians. They were also called ‘conversos’ or ‘marranos’, but this latter term is offensive and should not be used. Some became ‘cripto-judíos’ or ‘cripto-judeus’, crypto-Jews, that is, Jews who professed Christianity in public but continued Jewish devotions privately. In the year 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil, and it would turn out that Brazil lacked the deposits of gold that the Spaniards were lucky enough to find in places like México and Perú. Subsequently, in Brazil, a modicum of gold was found in placers in or near riverbeds, and this was worked by panning, but it never approached the scale of operations in Spanish America. So agriculture early became the source of Brazil’s wealth, with the cultivation of sugarcane taking the fore. To this day, Brazil is the world’s leading producer of sugarcane and sugar. To work the canefields, Portuguese entrepreneurs used American Indian slaves, and, starting in 1538, black slaves. The black slaves came from Sudan, Portuguese Guinea (Guinea-Bissau today), Angola and Mozambique, the last three of which were Portuguese colonies until the twentieth century. Jesuits arrived in Brazil in 1549, and as was their practise in those days, established communities among the American Indians (Tupí, Guaraní and many other tribes). In these communities they taught reading, writing and various handicrafts, like metalwork, weaving and pottery. But it was not really so benevolent as it may sound, with conditions often resembling slavery and Jesuits willing to use force to convert the Indians. Many of the owners of engenhos (sugarcane plantations with mills) would rather have used the Indians for the thankless labor of the canebrakes, and a rivalry existed between them and the Jesuits. This rivalry was finally resolved by resorting primarily to black slavery in the canebrakes. This, of course, was done with the permission and blessings of Kings João III and Sebastião of Portugal, but they engaged directly in the slave commerce only briefly, leaving the sordid business in private hands, but issuing franchises for a price. Many Jewish conversos had come to Brazil, possibly for enlarged opportunities in the new world, but also because the enforcement of the ban on Jews was laxer in the colony. These Jewish conversos, apparently some of them moneyed, became key operators in the black slave trade, buying them at slave markets for resale generally, instead of working them themselves, though many Jews, including even rabbis, had black household slaves in those days. Slavery was abolished in Brazil only in 1888, which means that the lucrative slave business flourished for 350 years. However, in the 17th century, things got tough again for Jews in Brazil, so many opted to move to Suriname (Dutch Guiana) and other Dutch holdings, the Dutch being much more tolerant of Jews than the Portuguese. In their new home in Dutch territory, many Jews continued the slave business, but that’s not a part of the history of Brazil. When Americans talk about slavery they are usually thinking only of the Old South in the USA, but Brazil was far and away the greater consumer of black slaves. The US imported somewhat over 400,000 black slaves in the course of the trade, but Brazil imported 3,600,000, nine times as many. Today, the population of Brazil is 54% white, 39% mulatto, 6% black and 1% others. Brazil’s Indians are few today, and there is talk of a “silent genocide”, with many unexplained disappearances of Indians recently. Jews today number only about 100,000, which amounts to .06% of Brazil’s total population of 186,000,000. Some black writers, like Tony Martin and Louis Farrakhan, have documented the Jewish role in the Brazilian slave trade, but Jews, when confronted with this, usually go into denial. For example, Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice blamed blacks in Africa for kidnapping and selling other blacks to slave dealers, and, surely, that is a good point, but that does not explain or justify the overrepresentation of Jews in the slave markets of Brazil. Just let me note that slavery was not considered "immoral" in the 16th century. This is a modern notion. Surely the Bible doesn't prohibit it, if what the Bible says matters. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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