Source: PortalCapoeira
Translated into English by Shayna McHugh

May 13th, 1888 went down in Brazilian history as the date on which slavery was abolished. It was the date on which the princess’ pen signed the decree doing away with oppression, enabling the black population to become free, no longer having masters, and able to live with dignity and equality.

That is what I learned in school, and that is what I believed for many years of my life. Of course I never understood too well why Princess Isabel, "The Redeemer," decided to make a decision that went against the interests of those in power, aligning herself with the subjugated black population and with a few poets, intellectuals, and dreamers who called themselves abolitionists. I thought it was a true bloodless revolution, carried out by a courageous woman.

What I never learned in school was that at the time, the Brazilian sugarcane business (which was the main source of national wealth, created 90% by slave labor) was going from bad to worse. Central American sugar was cheaper and closer to the big markets, and it was higher quality than Brazilian sugar. It was impossible to compete with it. But unfortunately I only learned the "Convenient History," in which political and economic aspects "did not concern us."

The immense numbers of slaves thus became a burden for the masters of the mills. How could they sustain this "horde" of men, women, and children during the economic crisis, even under miserable conditions? It was the question that refused to be silenced, and it had only one response: mass dismissal. Yes my friends, mass dismissal was the solution for the forced laborers who built and sustained the national economy. And it was the cruelest thing done in the world, perhaps of all times.

It was a dismissal without any workers’ rights. Millions of laborers had to leave the only shelter they knew, armed only with their meager belongings and the clothes on their back. And they didn’t have the right to stay if they wanted to. Only those who were especially apt in their work or who possessed special skills were kept as employees, just for the interest of the capitalist masters. This dismissal had a beautiful name: the Golden Law.

Before this law, however, came others that were similarly convenient to the interests of the dominant class. The first was the 1850 law prohibiting the traffic of slaves. Since England, in practice, had already decided to intercept and apprehend slave ships and free the slaves, this was a useless law.

The second law, in 1871, declared children born to slaves after this date to be free. This law was only implemented to appease the abolitionists. It had no practical application, because how could the children be free when their parents were slaves? Would the children have an education, a decent place to live, and citizenship while their parents were in the slave quarters? Would these children - who would be educated until the age of 21 by their parents’ masters - have the lives of citizens or slaves?

The third law, in 1885, was the most twisted of all. It freed slaves who were 60 and older, while paying a small compensation to their masters. But the life expectation of a free citizen at the time was 60-65 years, and that of a slave was 32-40 years. It was rare for a slave to reach the "liberation" age, and it was even difficult to know the slaves’ exact ages. Even today there are many people who do not possess a legal birth certificate. So if the slave in question was still strong and healthy and able to work, it was easy to say that he had not yet reached the age required by the law. But if he was weak or sick and not useful to work, there was nothing easier than to say he was 60 years old and send him away.

After the 1888 "liberation," the immense "free" contingent, among which were the weak, the sick, the elderly, and children, was expelled to the streets in an instant. There was no land reform and no free public education for the newly liberated people. Have you ever thought about the future living conditions for those who were "liberated"?

• Where would they live?
• How would they survive?
• Would they suddenly be respected as citizens, or not?
• What kind of opportunities would the "society" that they had constructed offer them so that they could construct their lives?