ABSTRACT
Independent Brazil made a relatively easy and rapid transition to a stable political order. In 1888 the Brazilian Parliament, with the approval of the emperor’s daughter, passed a law abolishing slavery. One year later, weakened by the defection of a large portion of the rural aristocracy, by quarrels with the church, and by discontent on the part of the army, the empire was overthrown, Dom Pedro departed into exile, and the victorious rebels proclaimed Brazil a federative republic. Under the empire, as in colonial times, Black slavery formed the massive base of virtually all of Brazil’s significant economic activity. Until 1850, when the slave-trade was effectually put down, it was considered cheaper, on the country-plantations, to use up a slave in five or seven years and purchase another, than to take care of him. Black slavery was the great domestic issue of Dom Pedro’s reign, and after 1880 the abolitionist movement assumed the character of a popular crusade.
