The Malê Revolt: History Of Slavery In Brazil

In 1835 a rebellion of great importance for the history of slavery in brazil and latin america happened, the Malê Uprising, moreover known as "Malê Revolt" and "insurrection of 1835" ( R. K. Kent, 346). This revolt was taken place in Bahia, in the city of Salvador, it was different from anyother revolt that happened or was happening in Brazil, the objective of their participants, slaves and non-slaves, was something never seen before, and the usage of their marvelous intellectual skills, their literacy, that they could organize this uprising and remained hidden for many months. In the 19th century, Brazil was getting independent economically and politically from portugal. the world was changing, trade routes were being created and some trade

K. Kent 335). That means that there was an over population of slaves in Brazil, but the money to sustain them remained the same, with that, their quality of life, that wasn't even reasonable, decreased, provoking illness, hunger, sadness and they were punished regularly because of that. This way of life that slaves were living triggered them to rebellion, revolts were happening in different places in Brazil, and they were happening often, in 1833 happened a rebellion in Minas Gerais, 1831 in Pará, 1832 in Pernambuco and 1834 in Mato

Slaves in Bahia were predominantly "Angolas" and "Minas", also known as the "Bantus", the "Angolas" were docile than the others slaves and had great will to learn, and "mechanical inclination", so they were usually put to work in the engenhos (sugar mill and plantation complexes). In the other hand, the "Minas", that were more intelligent than the angolas but at the same time had horrible agricultural labor, were put to work as householders slaves and in trades, as gain slaves (R. K. Kent, 339). Gain slaves were usually working as street vendor, smith and taylor, sculptor in wood and stone and shopkeeper, they stood between house servants and manumitted slave (a slave that were released from its owner), they had few contact with their owner, the contact they had was just to give the percentage of what they accumulated during a week, this gave them a certain freedom, they were allowed to walk all over the city, and they had no time restriction. The "Minas" slaves were predominantly of Nagôs and Gegés ethnicity, ethnicities that came from what the portuguese settlers called the Gold Coast, according to George Gardner's writing, a botanist that was traveling through Brazil, "the slaves of Bahia are more difficult to manage them those of any other part of Brazil, and more frequent attempts at revolt have taken place there than elsewhere. The cause of this is obvious. Nearly the whole of