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The Black Ragamuffins: Racial Hypocrisy in Nineteenth Century Southern Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Spencer L. Leitman
Spencer L. Leitman*
Affiliation:
Rockville Centre, New York
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Extract

On September 20, 1835, borderland chieftains and their followers in Rio Grande do Sul, known as Farrapos or Ragamuffins, toppled the provincial government in Pôrto Alegre. By November 1836 the Farrapos had established a republican government in the small town of Piratini in the southwest hills of the province; for close to ten years they would withstand the power of the Brazilian Empire in their bid for independence. At the outset, when the rebels had captured the initiative, they were reluctant to use slaves in the Ragamuffin army. Aware of internal security problems and the sanctity of private propetry, the leadership expressed fear of arming and training Afro-Brazilians. But as the maddening horse-war dragged on, the newly created Republic of Rio Grande do Sul became eager for men who might be counted as white. By the end of the Ragamuffin War, slaves were the backbone of the rebel army.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , January 1977 , pp. 504 - 518
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1977

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References

1 The literature on the Ragamuffin War is voluminous; the most valuable work is Varela, Alfredo, História da grande revoluçāo: o cyclo farroupilha no Brasil 6 vols. (Pôrto Alegre, 1933)Google Scholar.

2 Araripe, Tristāo de Alencar, “Guerra civil no Rio Grande do Sul,” Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro XLIII: 2 (1880), 122.Google Scholar

3 See, for example Vellinho, Moyses, Capitania d’El-Rei: aspectos polêmicos da formaçāo rio-grandense 2nd ed (Pôrto Alegre, 1964), 178;Google Scholar Spalding, Walter, A epopéia farroupilha: pequena história da grande revoluçāo, accompanhada de farta documentaçāo da epoca 1835–1845 (Sāo Paulo, 1963), 166.Google Scholar

4 Varela, Alfredo, Revoluçōes cisplatinas: a república riograndense 2 vols. (Pôrto, 1915), II, 517–588.Google Scholar

5 Reichardt, H. Canabarro, Bento Gonçalves (Pôrto Alegre, 1932), 202–203.Google Scholar

6 The breakdown of caste society in Uruguay is discussed by Rama, Carlos M., “The Passing of the Afro-Uruguayans from Caste Society into Class Society,” in Mörner, Magnus, ed., Race and Class in Latin America (New York, 1970), 28–50.Google Scholar

7 Varela, , Revoluçōes cisplatinas, II, 563 Google Scholar. Imperial forces remaining in the province exploited traditional cultural and racial fears. To discredit the Farrapos, they associated them with the “barbaric” practices of “knife wielding African Slaves,” and attacked noted mulatto Ragamuffin leaders with stinging racial ridicule. Antônio Rodrigues Fernandes Braga, October 10, 1835, “Aos illudidos” (manifesto) in Alfredo Varela Collection, Arquivo Histórico do Rio Grande do Sul (hereafter VC & AHRGS), pasta LIV; O Guayba, February 28, 1839, n. 29, 4; See poem on the mulatto Farrapo leader. Domingos José de Almeida in Alfredo Ferreira Rodrigues Collection, (hereafter AFRC), AHRGS, Biographias.

8 Araripe, , “Guerra Civil,” XLV: 1 (1882), 146–147;Google Scholar Menezes, Agostinho Joze de, October 17, 1836 (testimony) in Publicaçōes do Arquivo Nacional XXIX (Rio de Janeiro, 1933), 204;Google Scholar Varela, , Revoluções cisplatinas, II, 270.Google Scholar

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11 Varela, , Revoluçōes cisplatinas, II, 916.Google Scholar

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16 draft of government official charged with making recruitment policy (n.d.) VC, XXXV.

17 Luiz Joze Ribeiro Barreto to Urbano Soares, Q. G. da Marechal Commandante, Antônio de Sousa Netto, July 6, 1841 (confidential), VC, XXI,

18 Joāo Baptista Barboza to Ignacio José de Oliveira Guimaraēs, [Boqueirāo] September 4, 1839, VC, XLV.

19 Francisco Pinto de Sousa to Almeida, Pôrto Alegre, March 7, 1842, VC, LI.

20 Antonio Vicente da Fontoura to Joāo Antonio da Silveira, Santa Maria, December 16, 1837, VC, XXXIII; draft (n.d.), VC, XXXV.

21 Spalding, Walter, “Uma biografia frustrada,” Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Rio Grande do Sul XV (1935), 81.Google Scholar

22 José Ribeiro Barreto to Joaquim Teixeira Nunes, Piratini, June 3, 1843 (registro de correspondencia official), VC, XXXII.

23 Draft of recruitment policy (n.d.), VC, XXXV; For further examples of this attitude see Joaquim Gonçalves da Silva to Domingos José de Almeida, 1843, VC, LI; José Mariano de Mattos to Almeida, 1841, VC, XXVIII.

24 José da Silva Brandāo to Serafim Gonçalves Moreira, February 28, 1838 (copy of circular) AFRC, Documentos para a história da revoluçāo de 1835, vol. II.

25 Joāo da Silva Tavares to Francisco José de Sousa Soares de Andreia, Acampamento (Pedras Altas), November 21, 1840, VC, XLII; Conde de Lagos to Caetano Maria Lopes Gama, Rio de Janeiro, September 17, 1839, Arquivo Historico do Ministério de Relaçōes Exteriores, Itamarati (hereafter AHI) 299/2/4.

26 Rama, , “Passing of the Afro-Uruguayans”, 47;Google Scholar Ribeiro, Duarte da Ponte, Rio de Janeiro, May 25, 1844 in Ribeiro, Ponte, As relaçōes do Brasil com as republicas do Rio da Prata de 1829 a 1843 (Rio de Janeiro, 1936), 41–43.Google Scholar

27 Rama, , “The Passing of the Afro-Uruguayans,” 47.Google Scholar

28 Antônio Gonçalves Chaves to Almeida, Montevideo, February 26 and September 6, 1837, VC, XLVI; Almeida to Bernadina Barcellos de Almeida, Pirantini, August 9, 1837, VC, XXVI; Joaquim Rodrigues Barcellos to Almeida, Montevideo, January 27, 1839, VC, XLVIII; Treasury Minister Almeida also drafted slaves into various sectors of the rebel economy as cattle hands, messengers, and general maintenance workers. Further, he employed slaves on land confiscated from the Legalists, and in powder work and tobacco and Paraguayan tea plantations which the government had set up. O Povo, November 7, 1838 Vol. I, n. 20, 4: O Povo, October 17, 1838 Vol. I, n. 14, 1; Brandāo to Almeida, Estância de Vacacahy, October 13, 1839, VC, XXXI; Fernando Joaquim Pereira Fagundes to João Antonio da Silveira, January 27, 1839, AFRC, Archivo de Silveira, V. II; O Povo, January 25, 1840, Vol. III, n. 137,1; O Povo, October 27, 1838 Vol. I, n. 17,1.

29 Almeida to Antônio de Ferreira Correra, Sāo Gabriel, February 14, 1841, VC, XXVIII; Almeida to Bento Gonçalves da Silva, Bagé, July 18, 1842 (copy), XV, XXX; Almeida to Fructuoso Rivera, Bagé, July 25, 1842 (copy), VC, XXX; Almeida to David Canabarro, Pelotas, October 25, 1845, VC, XXX.

30 Joze da Silva Brandāo to Joaquim dos Santos Prado Lima, October 13, and November 29, 1838, AFRC, Archivo de Prado Lima; Antônio Paulino Limpo de Abreu to Manuel Alves Branco, Rio de Janeiro, January 23, 1836, AHI, 301/1/14.

31 Clemintino Luis de Freitas to Vasco Madruga de Bentancourt, February 27, 1838, VC, XLV.

32 Jornal do Commercio, July 27, 1841, n. 147.

33 Bernardo Pereira da Vasconcellos to Antônio Elisiario de Miranda e Brito, Rio de Janeiro, November 19, 1838, AHRGS, Avisos da Justica.

34 Ibid.

35 Saturnino do Sousa e Oliveira to Joze Clemente Pereira, Pôrto Alegre, January 13, 1841, AHRGS, Caixa 8., n. 54; Throughout the Ragamuffin War authorities were apprehensive about slave rebellions, Cardoso, Fernando Henrique, Capitalismo e escravidāo no Brasil meridional: o negro na sociedade escravocrata do Rio Grande do Sul (Sāo Paulo, 1962), 160–161n.Google Scholar

36 Francisco José de Montezuma to Feliciano Nunes Pires, Rio de Janeiro, June 10, 1837, AHRGS, Avisos da Justica.

37 Acta da Conferencia de Estado, September 29, 1842, AN, Codex 603 vol. 4, fls 414 415.

38 Decree of May 11, 1839 in O Povo, May 11, 1839, Vol. II, n. 65, 2.

39 Decree of May 16, 1839 in O Povo, May 18, 1839, Vol. II, n. 67,1.

40 Varela, , História, VI, 16–17 Google Scholar. Libertos were not allowed to vote in municipal elections nor did they participate in the election of delegates to the Constituent Assembly, Russomano, Victor, História constitucional do Rio Grande do Sul: esboço 1835–1930 (Pelotas, 1932), 110.Google Scholar

41 Araripe, , “Guerra civil,” (1880), 86 Google Scholar. Portinho’s notes on; According to Varela Farrapos planned to eliminate slavery after the successful conclusion of the revolution, História, V, 322.

42 Clemente Pereira to Pedro II, Rio de Janeiro, September 17, 1842 AN, Codex 603 Vol. 4 fls. 402–404.

43 Ribeiro, Ponte, As relaçōes, 34–36.Google Scholar

44 Ibid.

45 Saturnino Sousa e Oliveira to Aurèliano de Souza e Oliveira Coutinho, Pôrto Alegre, January 31, 1842 (confidential), AHI, 309/4/23.

46 For a year by year discussion of peace negotiations see Docca, E. F. Souza, O sentido brazileiro da revoluçāo farroupilha (Pôrto Alegre, 1935), 61–94.Google Scholar

47 Varela, , História, V, 216–217.Google Scholar

48 Docca, Souza, O sentido brasileiro, 89.Google Scholar

49 See, Carvalho, Affonso de, Caxias (Rio de Janeiro, 1940), 127–138.Google Scholar

50 Jeronimo Francisco Coelho to Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, October 30, 1844 (confidential), AHRGS, Avisos da Guerra; idem to idem, Rio de Janeiro, December 18, 1844 and Instructions (both confidential), AHRGS, Avisos da Guerra; Caxias to Coelho, Pôrto Alegre, April 17, 1845, AHRGS, Caixa 8, n. 57. He reminds the Minister of War that there were “other expenses, extraordinary and secret” which depleted provincial coffers.

51 Caxias to Pedro de Abreu, Bagé, November 9, 1844 (confidential), AHRGS, Caixa 17, n. 171.

52 Domingos José de Almeida to Carlos von Koseritz, (n.d. 1860?, draft), VC, XXIX.

53 Varela, Alfredo, Riogrande do Sul, descripçāo physica, histórica, e económica (Pelotas, 1897), 186.Google Scholar

54 Rosa, Othelo, Vultos da epopéia farroupilha: escorços biographicos (Pôrto Alegre, 1935), 197;Google Scholar Caxias to Coelho, Bagé, February 4, 1845 in Ofícios do barāo de Caxias, 167–168.

55 Almeida to Bernardo Pires, Pelotas, March 14, 1860, VC, XXIX; Varela using Almeida’s archive came to similar conclusions, História, VII, 498–502. The standard reply to Varela’s analysis is still Alfredo Ferreira Rodrigues, A pacificaçāo do Rio Grande do Sul: David Canabarro e a surpreza de Porongos, resposta as accusaçāes feitas ao general republicano (Rio Grande, 1898).

56 Caxias to Pedro de Abreu, Bagé, January 15, 1845, in Ofícios do barāo de Caxias, 165–166; Caxias to Coelho, Bagé, February 4, 1845, in Ofícios do barāo de Caxias, 167–168.

57 Coelho to Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, May 7, 1845 (confidential), AHRGS, Avisos da Guerra; Rebel slaves, after the transferal and before departing for Rio de Janeiro were suspicious and took advantage of every opportunity to escape. Antônio Francisco de Paula e Holanda Cavalcanti de Albuquerque to Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, September 5, 1845, AHRGS, Avisos da Guerra.

58 Anais da Camara dos Deputados, May 2, 1845, II, 936–940.Google Scholar

59 I would like to thank Mary Karasch for bringing this document to my attention. Manoel Felisardo de Souza e Mello, May 24, 1848, AN, IJ6471.

60 Araripe, , “Guerra civil,” (1880), 198 Google Scholar. Portinhos marginal notation, VC, LXXII.