HISTORY 471
HISTORY OF BRAZIL
PRIMARY SOURCE CRITIQUE GUIDE
http://www.history.umd.edu/Faculty/DWilliams/courses/Spring11/HIST471/bonifaciocritique.html

The critical analysis of original, historical documents is one of the most important ways to think and write about the past.

In your first writing assignment, you are asked to critique 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.

The critique, due at the beginning of lecture on Thursday, February 17 [New Due Date], should be six-to-seven pages (typed, double-spaced, reasonable font and margins). Do not forget page numbering.

BACKGROUND

José Bonifácio was a native of Santos [São Paulo]. Born into a life of privilege in the late colonial era and educated in Portugal, Bonifácio was a prominent figure in the Portuguese imperial state, a key player in the Peninsular War, and an active participant in the events surrounding Brazilian independence.

Sometime shortly after independence, Bonifácio drafted the "Memoir on slavery" (short title), 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 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. In 1826, an English-language translation was published in London.

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 ["the servile element," a euphemism for slavery commonly heard in nineteenth-century Brazilian political debate]. 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 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 early years of the Brazilian empire.

Your critique must make explicit your engagement with the assigned reading (e.g., Viotti da Costa, Schultz, Marquese and Berbel). Mere summary, paraphrasing, and extended quotations of the text, without explication of the text or contextualization with the historical conditions of Bonifácio's time and the historiographies debate about the nature of slavery in Brazil in Bonifácio's lifetime, 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.