Persistence and Decline: Slave Labour and Sugar Production in the Bahian Recôncavo, 1850–1888
Focusing on the last decades before abolition (i888), this study examines slave labour and sugar production in the Bahian Rec6ncavo in Northeastern Brazil, one of the oldest slaveholding regions in the Americas. It demonstrates the marked contrast between the Rec6ncavo and the other main sugar-producing areas of Northeastern Brazil. In Bahia, the years 85 o-88 did not witness an increase in sugar exports; on the contrary, exports stagnated and then, with abolition, suffered a nearly complete collapse. Furthermore, sugar planters in the Reconcavo, unlike other Northeastern planters, relied overwhelmingly on slave labour until the very eve of abolition. The study suggests that the explanation for the contrast between the Reconcavo and other Northeastern sugar regions lies in alternatives to sugar production for a significant segment of the planter class and in alternatives to work on sugar plantations for a substantial part of the poor free population in the Reconcavo. On I2 May i888, probate officials in the sugar-producing township of Sao Francisco do Conde in the Bahian Reconcavo gathered to complete the final division of property belonging to the recently deceased Francisco Vicente Viana. Jointly with his wife, Viana had owned an estate with an assessed gross value of just over Rs. 147: 5 2$000 (approximately ?I 5,5 20 at then current exchange rates). The estate included the Engenho Dom Joao, a sugar plantation with its own mill, occupying 534 tarefas (233 ha) of land in the same township and employing 38 slaves. Once debts and other obligations were taken into account, the net value of the estate was significantly less; it came to only Rs. 45:43$570 (f4,768). The probate officials, in dividing Viana's property, followed Brazilian law and gave to his widow, Dona Luisa Flora Bulcao Viana, goods and cash worth half the net value of the couple's jointly owned estate. They also gave her an * The author wishes to thank Judith Allen, Epifania Firmo de Assis Neta, Marcus Carvalho, Donna Guy, Ana Maria Lugao Rios, Joseph Love, Mary Ann Mahony, Michael Meyer, Stuart Schwartz, Rebecca Scott, Laura Tabili, Jose and Tercina Vergolino, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this article or for help in locating sources. Special thanks to Suzanne Wilson for her help in photocopying the 1872 census. B. J. Barickman is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Arizona. J. Lat. Amer. Stud. 28, 581-6 3 Copyright ? 1996 Cambridge University Press 58I This content downloaded from 157.55.39.163 on Fri, 18 Nov 2016 04:12:56 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms