THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1882. 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
SLAVERY IN BRAZIL :— No. IV. 
Dollar, N. B., 19th Jany. 1882. 
Gentlemen,— I said the decrease by the law of 1871 
was 2$ per cent. I mean 2\ per annum for the last ten 
years, during which time there has been only two distri- 
butions of the Emancipation Fund, in 1875 and 1880 
The amount set apart for these was 8128'612$309— 
say £800,000 English money — in ten years 
Before we go more into figures let us see what ibis 
law is. Let us make ourselves acquainted with the 
provisions of the law before we decide to abuse tbe 
administrators of it. Here then is a rough summary 
of law, No. 2040 of 28th Sept. 1871-:— 
Art 1. Children of slave mother born afier date of law 
to be free. Master has to rear the children and he can 
avail himself of their services until the minors are 21 
years old. If the master likes, he can hand over the 
child at eight year9 of age to Government and receive 
a bond for $600 (£60) bearing interest at 6 per cent per 
annum to become extinct in thirty years. (In either 
case the minor is a slave and lives and works among 
slaves until he is twenty-one years). 
do. 2. Governmentmay deliver overthe minors— whom 
slave-owners do not care to keep after they are eight 
years — to authorized Associations to use their services 
until they (the minors) are twenty-one years old. 
do. 3. An emancipation fund is to be formed and so 
many slaves are to be liberated annually. 
do. 4. A slave can save mouey and call it his own, 
can receive gifts, legacies and inheritances ; and his 
master can consent to his receiving money for work 
done to a third party (such as working for some one 
on Sunday or any time his master may not require him). 
do. 5. Emancipation Societies may be formed, but 
must be under the Judge of Orphans. 
do. 6. Declaresfree slaves belongingto thecrown slaves 
belonging to intestate estates, slaves abandoned by 
their masters, slaves liberated uuderthis law; but all 
to be under Government inspection for five years. 
do. 7. A slave may open a case in court for his liberty. 
The process will be summary, and an ex officio ap- 
peal made to higher court, if the decision is againts 
liberty. (This is rather an impossible contingency.) 
do. 8. Enforces registration of name, sex, condition, 
aptitude for labour, and lineage, if known. 
do. 9. Government may impose fines and simple im- 
prisonment in tbe carrying out of these regulations. 
10. do. All dispositions to thecontrary hereby revoked. 
Regulations were made for carrying out the provisions 
of the law and an imperial decree issued for their en- 
forcement. 
It will be seen that next in importance to the de- 
claring free tbe child of the slave-mother, after he is 
twenty one years, is that referring to the liberation 
of so many slaves each year by means of an emancipa- 
tion fund. 
The emancipation fund shall be derived : — 
1. From a tax on slaves. 
2. From taxes on the transfer of slave property. 
3 From the proceeds of six annual lotteries, to be 
diavvn in the capital of the Empire, and a tenth part 
of ■il lotteries conceded by the Government. 
4. From fines imposed under this 1 «w. 
5. From funds set apart in the General Provincial 
a id Municipal budgets. 
6. From subscriptions, gifts, and legacies for this 
pirpuse. The rules laid down for the distribution of 
t le fund are a little complicated, which has made it 
quite impossible to arrive at the exact number of peo- 
ple benefited by the fund by the two distributions. 
Remark that there have been only into instead of ten, 
as the law provides. Each province and each district 
decides as to the manumi>sion$ according to the 
quota disposable from the emancipation fund. 
Class I. Families have precedence of 
Cla«s II. Individuals. 
Families are arranged in the following order : — 
1st — Married people, slaves of different masters. 
2nd — Married persons, who have children born under 
this law and under eight years. 
3rd — Married persons who have children under 21 years. 
4th — Married persons who have children minors 
and slaves. 
5th — Mothers having children minors and slaves. 
6th — Married pereoDS without children. 
For individuals the orders are : — 
1st — A mother or father with free children. 
2nd — Those from 12 to 50 years of age. commencing 
at the youngest in the feminine sex and the oldest in 
the masculine sex. 
In the order of emancipation of both families and 
individuals, those will be peferred 
First : who can either hi.nself or through some one 
else enter with a quota towards his liberation ; 
Second : those who, in the opinion of their masters 
are most deserving. If tbe conditions are equal, it will 
be decided by lot 
We thus see that, as far as the frame-work of the law 
stands, no objection can be offered to it. 
The emancipation fund, if it were large enough, could 
do a great deal ; but it is small and is not distributed 
annually, as intended by the law. Moreover a quarter of 
it has been kept from the special object of emancipation 
and placed tothecredit of the general revenue on thepal- 
try excuse that the Government has to provide establish- 
ments for the children of slave-mothers. Two \ ears have 
elapsed, during which the slave-owners could have 
sent ihe children they did not wish to retain and use 
the service of during their miuority, but nome were 
offered to the Government. In the present state of 
the labour market, fourteen years' work of a slave 
is of more value to a coffee and sugar planter than 
a payment of a paltry seventy-two shillings a year for 
thirty years. 
The total slave population, according to the census 
of 1st August 1872, one year after the pass- 
ing of the slave law, was given at 1,510,806. Several 
parishes had not given in their returns, and altogether 
this general registration was considered defective. The 
law, however, provided for a special registration up 
to 30th Sept. 1873, and all slaves who were not re- 
gistered before that date were declared free. These 
returns were given as complete from all tbe provinces 
except four — Para, Pernambuco, Miras Geraee, and 
Goyaz. The total registered at that date — Sept. 1873 
— are given 1,431,300. This is, no doubt, very d fective, 
but, if the law is properly carried out, those not included 
in this number must be free. As we have not beard 
of the freeing of any of those illegally held as slaves 
under the law of 1831 and other laws confirming it, 
we need not look for the rigid enforcing of this law. 
Several attempts have been made since then to get 
a proper census taken, and a return was got in 1878 
from eight of the provinces and the capital. Twelve 
provinces gave incomplete returns, or gave numbers 
calculated from the returns of 1875 and 1876. From 
these the slave population was Bet down at 1,419,168 
to end of 1878, or only 12,000, less than that given 
to Sept. 1873. From twelve of the provinces and the 
capital that had recenely sent complete returns, we 
find the changes in the slave population from 1873 
to 1878— five years— registered :— Sept. 18 3, 683,497 
Slave population Dec. 1S78 611,057 
Relative decrease 72,440 
