ABSTRACT

AA progressive intellectual, Dom Pedro would naturally have been opposed to slavery, regardless of his training. But it was probably his teachers who turned him

against it in early boyhood. As he grew older he fully realized that the system hurt the Empire, since it demoralized both master and slave.1 But, in working to abolish it, he could not, as a constitutional monarch, move too far in advance of public opinion. Though slave owners in Brazil did not foster the delusion that servile bondage was part of the "divine plan"-as did some in the United States, still a large proportion of them believed it necessary, especially since the supply of free labor was very limited. So long as this was true, abolition of slavery would be disastrous to agriculture and, in general, to the economic stability of the country. The Emperor fully realized this, and therefore favored gradual, carefully-planned, emancipation.2