HISTORY
471
HISTORY OF BRAZIL
PRIMARY SOURCE CRITIQUE GUIDE
http://www.history.umd.edu/Faculty/DWilliams/Fall08/HIST471/bonifaciocritique.html
The critical analysis of original, historical documents is one of the most important ways to think and write about the past. You are asked to write two primary source critiques during the semester. Each critique should be six-to-eight pages (typed, double-spaced, reasonable font and margins). Do not forget page numbering.
Our first critique, due at the beginning of lecture on Monday, October 13, considers the "Memoir addressed to the General Constituent and Legislative Assembly of the empire of Brazil on slavery" [Original title: "Representação à Assembléa Geral Constituinte e Legislativa do império do Brasil, sôbre a escravatura"], written by José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (1763-1838) circa 1823.
BACKGROUND
In 1886, the Sociedade Emancipadora 27 de Fevereiro, an abolitionist league active in the bustling port city of Santos (São Paulo), distributed a reprint of the "Memoir addressed to the General Constituent and Legislative Assembly of the empire of Brazil on slavery." Originally written sixty-three years earlier, the reprinted "Memoir on slavery" (short title) concerned what had come to be known as the elemento servil ["the servile element," a nineteenth-century euphemism for slavery] in the early days of the Empire. The author was José Bonifácio, a native of Santos born into a life of privilege in the late colonial era, educated in Portugal, a prominent figure in the Portuguese imperial state, and a key player in the Peninsular Wars in Portugal and in the Independence of Brazil.
Bonifácio had written the memoir soon after independence, declared September 7, 1822, in hopes of presenting his ideas to the Constituent Assembly convened in Rio to draft a new constitution. But, the intervention of Emperor D. Pedro I into the Assembly proceedings and Bonifácio's subsequent fall from royal favor had effectively precluded any formal debate on the memoir. The document, in fact, first circulated in print not in Brazil, but in France, where Bonifácio lived in exile. Even if Bonifácio had succeeded in formally presenting the document to the national legislative assembly, he would have surely faced stiff opposition to many of his ideas about the curtailment, and subsequent elimination, of the elemento servil. Post-independence Brazil was, after all, the largest slave society in the Americas whose lucrative slave economy was in a period of rapid expansion.
Largely ignored at its first printing, Bonifácio's "Memoir on slavery" nonetheless engaged important debates about the nature of the slave regime in Brazil. Like the political climate of the era, the memoir was fundamentally animated by notions of liberalism (in the Brazilian style). It advocated for a particular kind of liberalized social relations between master and slave. The memoir laid a blueprint for a peaceful, prolonged, and incremental process of abolition.
ASSIGNMENT
Critically analyze Bonifácio's "Memoir on slavery," demonstrating how the memoir illustrates important ideas, characteristics, and debates about the slave regime in the Brazilian empire (1822-1889).
GUIDELINES
Each critique should incorporate the following three elements:
1) The first and most basic element is an INTRODUCTORY SECTION that provides a general overview of the assigned text. This element should provide a basic description of the type of source under consideration and its content matter. It should identify the source author, conditions of authorship, the time and place of publication (when known), and the audience.
2) The second element is a CRITICAL EXPLICATION of the text. At a minimum, this element will explain the major historical personalities, events, and institutions mentioned in the text. A good explication will include a critical analysis of the document's content. The best critical explication will analyze the document's use of language and its biases. It will correlate these factors to the overall significance of the source.
3) The third element involves PLACING THE SOURCE IN ITS PROPER HISTORICAL AND HISTORIOGRAPHIC CONTEXTS. This element will argue how and why the text should be understood relative to other historical figures, trends, and events in Brazilian history. It should also describe how the text fits into ongoing debates about the specific problems in the study of Brazilian history.
You should not feel obligated to strictly follow the sequence of elements listed above.
You may, for example, discuss certain historical and historiographic problems at the same time that you develop your critical explication. What is important is that your critique incorporate all three elements.
Mere summary, paraphrasing, and extended quotations of the text, without explication or context, will result in a low grade.
All students are asked to write by hand and sign the Honor Pledge.
"I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this assignment/examination."
For additional information on the Student Honor Pledge, visit http://www.umd.edu/honorpledge.