The Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade: Britain, Brazil and the Slave Trade Question

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, 1970 - History - 424 pages
When at the beginning of the nineteenth century Britain launched her crusade against the transatlantic slave trade, Brazil was one of the greatest importers of African slaves in the New World. Negro slavery had been the cornerstone of the Brazilian economy and of Brazilian society for over 200 years and the slave population of Brazil required regular replenishment through the trade. In this detailed study Dr Bethell explains how during the period of Brazilian independence from Portugal, Britain forced the Brazilian slave trade to be declared illegal, why it proved impossible to suppress it for twenty years afterwards and how it was finally abolished. He covers a major aspect of the history of the international abolition of the slave trade and slavery and makes an important contribution to the study of Anglo-Brazilian relations which were dominated - and damaged - by the slave trade question for more than half a century.
 

Contents

Independence and abolition 18221826
38
Brazil and the slave trade 18271839
64
Treaty negotiations 18301839
99
The British navy and the mixed commissions
122
The extension of Britains powers 1839
151
Britain and the slave trade 18391845
181
Slave trade slavery and sugar duties 18391844
217
Lord Aberdeens Act of 1845
246
IO The aftermath of the Aberdeen
267
Changing attitudes and plans of action 18451850
296
The aftermath of abolition
333
Estimates of slaves imported into Brazil
388
Index
415
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