September r, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



199 



law that right is might aud might is right, but in no 

 other form. 



All this, however, teaches nothing to the Brazilian 

 who is striving to find an fqiiitable way in this sad 

 problem. He wishes to avoid bloodslied, he wishes 

 to avoid unfairness, and he shrinks from the terrible 

 ten years of national baukrnptoy and anarchy. As 

 beforesaid, the weilth- winning force of the nation is 

 the slave population, seeing that thus far the cities 

 and towns have absorbed four-fifths of the colonists who 

 have sought these shores, these immigrants naturally 

 preferring an ea--y city life with some few diversions 

 to the comparatively hard life in the cofi'ee and sugar 

 plantations. 



Now, to find a substitute for this slave labour 

 without annihilating for a time the export trade of the 

 Empire is a mighty problem, and unfortunately 

 neither of the oases of emancipation cited can help 

 Brazil in the least degree, seeing that she, although 

 territorially and minerally rich, is really financially 

 poor, hence could not dream of paying down cash 

 for 1, 100,000 slaves, each worth about £70, taking 

 one with another; and, again, before withdrawing this 

 wealth winning labour from her plantations, colonists 

 and free labourers would have to come in, and before 

 these can become thoroughly accustomed to all the 

 work of the plantations it will be necessary to add 

 very largely to the machinery and appliances to do 

 work now done by the slaves, but which free labourers 

 would not undertake, being nnaccustomed to work 

 as the slaves do in the hot terreiros, or coffee-drying 

 grounds. This, therefore, means an expenditure of 

 capital which is not within the reach of the majority 

 of the planters, especially at this present time of low 

 prices and uncertainty. 



Brazil, again, having coffee for her chief product, 

 is unfavourably placed with the English West Indies, 

 where sugar was chieliy grown, or with the Southern 

 United States, whose chief product was cotton. Coffee 

 is an evergreen shrub, which requires careful atten- 

 tion for live years before bearing fruit, and which, it 

 abandoned for an equal time, dies out ; whereas 

 cotton and sugar alike produce in one year after plant- 

 ing, henoe, if abandoned for any number of years, 

 would yield a return to the planter after ono year's 

 tilling of the soil. This, therefore, makes it more 

 imperative that before abolishing slavery free labour 

 shall be at hand to replace ihe slaves of Brazil, 

 for of these latter not one-third will work after 

 eminc jjation, and this third will not do more than 

 two-thirds of what it now does. To estimate the 

 number of free labourers required it is necessary to 

 find out how many emancipated slaves would consent 

 to work. At present about 500,000 slaves are engaged 

 on the coffee plantations, of whom, (more than prob- 

 ably) only 150,000 would work after being liberated, if 

 freedom were granted unconditionally ; and as the 

 real working value of these would only be two-thirds 

 of what it now is, this number can only be valued 

 at 100,000 out of the 500,000 now working, leaving 

 400,000 to be found among the incoming colonists or 

 among the city labourers. The present rate of coloniz- 

 ation in Brazil does not exceed 15,000 a year of which 

 number only about one-quarter goes to the great agri- 

 culture, the others preferring to gain independent 

 livings on railways, at small trades, or in the pro- 

 ducing of the smaller necessaries of life, which shows 

 that to supply the want of 400,000 in the gi-eat and 

 only agriculture that maintains the exchequer of the 

 nation Icfs than 4,000 a year arrive. 'JL'he difference 

 between 4,000 aud the needed 400,000 is so stupend- 

 ous that it is evident that, unless some system be 

 adopted to oblige the negroes to work after they are 

 free, this great aud fair land will become desolate 

 and bankrupt, 

 The law of 1871 as it now gtancU, is in a very 



fair way of accompli.shing emancipation without its 

 being necessary to advance any aggressive measures 

 connected with general abolition, for, taking the life 

 of a slave to be less than 40 years, and remember- 

 ing that already the youngest born slave child is over 

 twelve years old, the greatest length of time that 

 could elapse before the last slave was free (leaving 

 out the comparatively insignificant number of manu- 

 missions) would be only "28 years — that is, in the year 

 1910; but the law of 1S71, although simple in its ac- 

 tion up to the present time, will soon begin to have 

 serious complications, seeing that at 10 years of age 

 many women marry here, and this especially among 

 the negroes. The relations, therefore, of the child of 

 a free-born child to the master of its grandmother will 

 make matters r.atber difBeult, so that in order to avoid 

 these and other complications of the same order, and 

 to satisfy the noisy clamour of the so called city 

 emancipators, the owners will find that instead of 

 the year 1910 the year 1890 will be much more near 

 the date when all will be free. As this consum- 

 mation cannot be brought about without money to 

 aid in the promotion of colonization and the intro- 

 duction of new appliances and machinery, it becomes 

 clear that those who have commercial and other 

 relations with Brazil cannot engage in a nobler task, 

 and at the same time one which will more enrich 

 the whole civilized world, than in the making of the 

 emancipation of Brazilian slaves possible without an 

 ensuing ten years of darkneea and ruin. 



The question of the emancipation of 1,100,000 

 slaves is one that might well occupy the many great 

 minds now lying idly by in Europe. What a 

 olorious prize to strive after, the finding of a way to 

 accelerate the freedom of a million human beings with- 

 out having an interregnum of anarchy, bloodslied, and 

 misery between the freeing and the perfect establish- 

 ment of free labour I He, however, who ui .lertakes 

 this herculean task must not forget that in trying to 

 obtain freedom for slaves he must secure the honour 

 and lives of the thousands of delicate women and 

 children who would find it hard to be thrown into a 

 flood of a million em.ancipated creatures, many of wliom, 

 like Caliban, are calling out for freedom, aud who, 

 like him, look at freedom aa free licence to all 

 passions. 



If the anti-slavery peoj)le of England have any real 

 weight in society— if they really wish for the end of all 

 slavery — then can they help the Brazilians in this the 

 last great emancipation of slaves. It has been demon- 

 strated that without the aid of a very large sum of 

 money the Brazilians cannot hope to bring about a 

 satisfactory emancipation. Now, the raising of this 

 money in the empire being out of the question, it 

 would have to be done by a loan, which would require 

 more than au ordinary single-handed efiort on the 

 part of the Brazilian Government. The anti-elavery 

 people, therefore, can do good service here, bearing in 

 mind— first, that the total value of the Brazilian slaves 

 is about £77,000,000 sterling ; secondly, that before 

 the abolition of slave-Labour the plantations must be 

 placed in such a condition that free labourers or colon. 

 ists may work them, which means a very consider- 

 able outlay of money in laying down tramways for the 

 moving, apparatus for the lifting, and obtaining some 

 method of artificial drying for the coffee. 



Were the Brazilian Government at the present time 

 to attempt to raise a loan sufficient for immediate 

 emancipation— say, £77,000,000— of course, it would 

 fail ; but, even were it possible, it would not be ad- 

 visable, as a sudden emancipation is only another way 

 of defining national bankruptcy. In order, th refore, 

 that the national excluqucr may still bo replenished 

 during the transformation of the slave labour into the 

 free, oomo method whereby the Government will become 



