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Slavery In Brazil

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“Most men today cannot conceive of a freedom that does not involve somebody's slavery” is a quote by the famous scholar, W.E.B. DuBois. The two essays, The Charter of Freedom in Brazil and the Gradual Abolition and the Dynamics of Slave Emancipation in Cuba, 1868-1886, shows two slavery occupied countries as they progress into a dissimilar era. Though both of these essays have numerous similarities, such as speaking about population decreases and the class system; both also have differences, for example, they focus on different ideas such as, social dynamics and routes to freedom.
The definition of similar is “almost the same as someone or something else” (Similar).Thus, as previously stated, the essays on Brazil and Cuba are …show more content…
Rather through, the blocking of the laws or slaves being ignorant to them, the decrees were rarely of use to the slaves. In both Brazil and Cuba, slave owners attempted to block their slave’s freedoms. In Brazil, the slaves tended to live in an augmented closed world, where their only influence was their slave master. So, the slave masters would not inform the slaves of their rights. The slave master would also block the slave’s freedom by denying their manumission prices, which were completely subjective in favor of the slave master. In Cuba, there was a partisan group assembled to free slaves, but a sizable amount of members were slave owners, thus rendering the group useless. As well as, slave masters would stall during court cases involving freeing unregistered slaves. The slave masters were not the only ones blocking slave’s freedoms; the laws themselves rarely immediately gave the slaves emancipation. For example, in Brazil, the Law of Sexagenarians made slaves who could not pay for a manumission work, for an additional three years. Moreover, in Cuba, if a child owed unpaid labor to their master they were required to continue working until the age of eighteen, even if their parents were freed. In both societies though, the premier way to gain freedom with an uncooperative slave master was through a godfather, or another person of that sort. These people usually had to be literate and urban or occasionally appointed by the courts, they would testify on the behalf of the slave. In conclusion, without the “godfathers”, a greater amount of slaves would have fallen victim to wily slave masters coupled with their own

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