The Book Of Slave Marks

By Fr. Cyril Lovett mssc

From time to time we come across a book or document, from another age, which moves us. One such Brazilian document that moves me profoundly is known as the Book of Slave Marks. It is a register of more that fifteen hundred slaves, their baptismal names, nation of Origin, sex and approximate age, as well as the marks with which they were branded and the part of the body on which these marks were inflicted.

 

This is an extremely rare document. When, in 1888, Brazil finally abolished slavery, it had dubious destruction of being the last country in the world to do so. One of the official actions that followed almost immediately was the burning of all the documents to do with slavery – a kind of national effort to wipe out the memory of one of the most shameful episodes of Brazil’s history. This Book of Slave Marks is one of the very few documents that survived.

All the names in the book are written in the same hand. We do not know why this list was composed from the original documents. It may have been merely a bureaucratic task or it may have been some impulse of pity or shame at so much pain inflicted on human beings. In support of this latter interpretation is the fact that the scribble highlighted in inverted comas the suffix “dor” meaning “pain” in the little of the ships – the “Especulador”.

Chains of Slaves

The process of marking the skin of the slaves with a red-hot branding iron was one of the cruelest aspects of slavery. Men and women were hunted down in various parts of East and West Africa where the Portuguese held sway. Among the nations mentioned in the document are the Benguella and Quillimanos, who were of Bantu origin from the coasts of Angola and Mozambique. They were marched long distances in chains and finally herded together in sheds in the port cities where they awaited transport to Brazil.

There they were branded with the particular mark or monogram of a number of Brazilian slave importers. The brand was applied to a part of the body which was easily visible – the arms, shoulders breasts or thighs. Its purpose was to facilitate recognition of the slave on disembarkation in Brazil and, more importantly, to identify and track down runaway slaves.

Human Merchandise

These were not only brands that were applied to these unfortunate people. A brand in the form of a cross applied to the arm signified that the royal taxes had been paid and a small cross branded on the breast was the clear indication that a slave had been baptized, albeit with a minimum of instruction, in Africa before embarkation. All these brands marked a slave as a form of merchandise, an item of trade.

Portuguese navigators frequently engaged in triangular from of commerce. They brought iron, bars, bales of cotton, and tobacco to Africa where they were bartered for slaves. This type of exchange for pieces of cloth was so common that slaves also were often referred to as pecas or pieces. On the return voyages the ships would be stocked with produce from Brazil particularly tobacco andaguardente-locally brewed spirits.

Dreadful Voyage

No attempt was made to keep families together. In fact, on reaching Brazil every effort was made to separate families and members of the same tribe in order to reduce the danger of insurrection. Conditions on board the slave ships were so dreadful that from ten to fifteen percent of slaves died en route. The voyage lasted a minimum of two months from East Africa and three months from Mozambique. On some of these ships more than a half the slaves were infants and children.

Campaigns to end Slavery

The beginnings of the campaign to abolish slavery have a connection also to this Book of Slave Marks. Britain became the great advocate of abolition in 1807 in spite of its vigorous participation in the slave trade up to that date. It was a time of strong humanitarian and philanthropic discourse. There were other concerns, too, notably the need to boost the product of the industrial revolution in the colonies. As long as cheap slave labour was available nobody was interested in substituting machines for slaves. Also, once Britain abolished slavery in its own colonies it was at an economic disadvantage with competing nations such as Brazil and Cuba who continued to use them.

Slave Trafficking

So, at the beginning of the last century much of Britain’s diplomatic efforts were directed to ending slavery. Portugal, under pressure from the Napoleonic invasion, signed a pact with Britain guaranteed the safe conduct of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil. In return, Portugal promised to gradually promised to gradually phase out slavery. In 1817, a further treaty restricted the Portuguese slave traffic to African ports of its colonies south of the Equator. With Brazil’s political independence in 1822 this treaty lost its effect but Britain, still on the diplomatic offensive, agreed to recognized the young monarch in return for a promise to abolish slave traffic. Change, however, was slow in coming as Brazilian slave owners demanded more slaves. By 1830 a joint Anglo-Brazilian Commission had been set up to judge any ships captured in the trafficking of slaves. It functioned spot radically depending on the strength of the Royal Navy at any given time, but illegal traffic went on unabated. In the period 1839 to 1841five vessels, the Ganges, Leal, Asseiceira, Especulador and Paquete de Benuela were captured and more than fifteen hundred slaves, whose names are listed in The Book of Slave Marks, were set free.

In fact, however, the law required them to serve fourteen years as “freed workers” either in public service, or rented out by state to an employer. They became a much sough after source of cheap labour, and by supreme irony, these “freed workers” were often treated more harshly than other slaves. The records available show that many of them died before they completed the fourteen years. And for those who survived and petitioned the Crown for their promised freedom, some other excuse was always found for refusing them. There is no evidence that any were set free.

Gift for Living

Today, we who work or have with the descendants of these and other African slaves in Brazil, can see some of the results in this traumatic experience. On the negative side is the generally low self-esteem of the black population; the persistent, subtle and not so subtle, efforts to maintain them as an inferior class; their lack of unity, political consciousness and a sense of their own history; the weakness of family values; and deplorable levels of racial prejudice. On the positive side, much that is most distinctive in the Brazilian culture – its most unique dishes; a vibrant Afro-Brazilian religion – Candomble – which has survived and thrived in the midst of endless persecution; the people’s gift for living the present moment; and their capacity to endure incredible hardship and suffering with Christian hope, are also part of the heritage of so many, who, like those listed in the Book of Slave Marks, endured the tortures of slavery.