Jeffrey D. Needell

A tropical belle epoque : elite culture and society in turn-of-the-century Rio de Janeiro

List of illustrations List of maps and figures Preface Acknowledgements A note on Brazilian Portuguese orthography and usage 1. Rio de Janeiro: capital of the Brazilian nineteenth century 2. Formal institutions of the elite 3. The salon and the emergence of high society 4. Domestic institutions of the elite 5. The rise of consumer fetishism 6. The literary belle epoque in Rio: the end of the Brazilian nineteenth century Conclusion Appendix: defining the elite Notes Bibliography Index.

The Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade in 1850: Historiography, Slave Agency and Statesmanship

In 1970 Leslie Bethell argued that the Brazilian slave trade was ended by British pressure. Since then others have pointed to slaveholders’ fears of insurrection and of yellow fever. This article addresses the issue by reviewing Brazilian slavery, the African trade and yellow fever. Its analysis of sources and context leads it to question revisionist arguments. Moreover, while it supports Bethell on the centrality of British pressure, it goes beyond his appreciation of internal Brazilian political affairs. It provides greater specificity, clarifying the key importance of political history, the structure of state-society relations and the significance of the Brazilian leadership of the time.

Brazilian Abolitionism, Its Historiography, and the Uses of Political History

Explanations of the Abolitionist movements success in Brazil (1888) have, since the 1960s and 1970s, emphasised the movements material context, its class nature, and the agency of the captives. These analyses have misunderstood and gradually ignored the movements formal political history. Even the central role of urban political mobilisation is generally neglected; when it is addressed, it is crippled by lack of informed analysis of its articulation with formal politics and political history. It is time to recover the relationship between Afro-Brazilian agency and the politics of the elite. In this article this is illustrated by analysing two conjunctures critical to the Abolitionist movement: the rise and fall of the reformist Dantas cabinet in 1884–85, and the relationship between the reactionary Cotegipe cabinet (1885–88), the radicalisation of the movement, and the desperate reformism that led to the Golden Law of 13 May 1888.

Party Formation and State-Making: The Conservative Party and the Reconstruction of the Brazilian State, 1831-1840

In the nineteenth century Brazil was considered unique not only for its size and Portuguese heritage but also for its distinct social and political characteristics. Brazil was an established slave society that was maintained in peace and unity under a constitutional monarchy. Traditionally, historiography has separated these elements. Most recently, the social history dominant in the Brazilian and Anglo-American academies has given us rich studies of slave society, without sustained reference to Brazil’s political history. In the nineteenth century, and in the earlier political analyses of the twentieth century, the monar-

Politics, Parliament, and the Penalty of the Lash: The Significance of the End of Flogging in 1886

The Brazilian penalty of the lash was reformed (1886) by a cabinet and parliament opposed to abolition. While the penalty’s abuse had been exploited by Abolitionists attempting the cabinet’s fall, the cabinet unexpectedly supported its reform. This apparent contradiction has not been satisfactorily addressed; this article attempts to do so. It will demonstrate that the cabinet’s support was a cabinet tactic designed to vindicate the cabinet’s policies and strength. Nonetheless, the revocation of the state’s role in flogging delegitimizing flogging on plantations, too, despite the cabinet’s expectations. Indeed, the reform impacted plantation destabilization, which helped lead to the cabinet’s fall and the 1888 law abolishing slavery. This complex series of events illustrates the Abolitionist struggle’s interweave between parliament, the movement, and slave agency.

O chamado às armas: o abolicionismo radical de Nabuco em 1885-1886

Nabucos role in the Abolitionist movement has been characterized in different ways, both in regard to his own political views and in regard to his significance in the process that led to slaverys end in 1888. Research suggests that both Nabucos views and his significance changed within the contingent context of the historical path of the movement. One of the most critical conjunctures demonstrating this is the transformational year of 1885, upon which this article focuses. As will be shown, the Abolitionist campaign of public pressure, initiated by Nabuco and his allies that year, mobilized a movement in the streets and in the fields which, in turn, would reach back through press and parliament to reverse crown policy and compel a legal end to slavery.