Brazil maintained slavery until 1889, among the last among civilized countries. With an old Emperor with no male heir, what would happen when he passed was too much for the elite to bare. Haiti seemed a scary possibility. So a coup creates a republic at least for the small minority of literate males. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The revolution that overthrew the Emperor was just a military coup with a General calling himself President. That is not how the new stamps portrayed it. The stamps show a liberty head that resembles the Statue of Liberty in New York City. This American symbolism was quite purposeful. Brazil wanted to be seen as a free country of people of European heritage. Like the early United States. The first name of the Brazilian Republic was the United States of Brazil.
Todays stamp is issue A39, a 100 Reis stamp issued by the United States of Brazil on May 1st, 1891. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.75 used. A stamp printed with the frame mistakenly inverted is worth $110.
Brazil’s journey from being a colony of Portugal was fairly unique. The Royal family of Portugal had sailed for Brazil upon Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal and ran the extensive Portuguese worldwide empire from Rio. When they left to return to Portugal they left a son behind as Emperor of a now separate Brazilian Empire. The economy changed during this time of Brazilian Empire. In colonial times, gold and diamond mining were the bulk of the economy. The new empire however used slavery to establish large coffee and rubber plantations. This made for a much different demographic makeup with a vast majority being African but the ruling class Portuguese. The frequent slave rebellions left visions of Brazil ending like Haiti. The Haitian revolutionary government had made it illegal for whites to own land and most fled, leaving Haiti one of the most poor countries on earth. Perhaps they should have thought of that before importing them. The importation was not easy, with the British Navy blockading the slave trade and boarding all Brazilian ships to look for slaves.
In 1852, Emperor Pedro II agreed with Britain to stop the official importation but the trade continued illicitly. The economy requiring the drug of forced labor and African tribes still being willing providers. Pedro II bowed to international pressure and freed the slaves in 1889. This made him popular with the freed slaves but by then he was an old sick man with no male heirs. He had a capable adult daughter but Brazilian society could not see itself ruled by a woman. A General deposed Pedro II in 1890 with no opposition from him who went off to retirement in Europe. Field Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca declared a Republic with the vote open to literate males, a tiny percentage. He did not reimpose slavery but opened immigration to Brazil to anyone of European heritage. The new government lacked stability, without slavery the plantation based economy faltered, but a Haitian outcome was avoided.
Well my drink is empty, and as a resident of the USA, I am wondering if this was how slavery would have ended in the South had the Confederacy been allowed to separate in 1861? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.