July 12, 2021

16:07

Gabriel Abreu e Bruno Pacheco – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – On the 10th of July, 1884, the province of Amazonas declared the abolition of slavery. The document was signed by governor Theodoreto Souto, almost four years before Princess Isabel sanctioned the Áurea Law. One of the representatives of the black movement defended this Saturday, 10, that the date, as well as others, should be present in the educational institutions so that the state does not grow “rootless”.

The president of the National Institute Afro Amazonas Origin, Christian Rocha pointed out that the fight is daily to ensure the rights of the black population in the country and that it is necessary to advance in public policies so that the rights are guaranteed. “We continue to be the protagonists of our own freedom, of our own history, and of our own rights that have been conquered but not practiced,” he commented initially.

“There is national, state and municipal Abolition of Slavery, which continue to be a historical factor in understanding the social differences in Brazilian Society. The Legislative Power continues without any historical and technical knowledge. The Judiciary continues without celerity for the processes about racism and injury. And the Executive continues to dictate public policies without consulting the movements, and when they do, they don’t absorb the whole issue”, Rocha said.

Freedom

The episode of freeing slaves in the Amazon happened because of the black ethnic group that was introduced in the Amazon in the 18th century, between 1756 and 1788, when 28,647 slaves arrived in the region, bought by the Companhia Geral do Grão Pará e Maranhão, with this number representing 4.36% of the total number of slaves entering Brazil in that period.

In the following century, in the year 1848, the number of slaves in the Amazon had increased to 34,207 almost all living in Pará and only 710 in Amazonas, in the Rio Negro region, representing 3.1% of the 22,692 inhabitants of this piece of Brazil elevated to the category of Province by Law 528/1850.

The abolition of slavery in Amazonas occurred two months later than the capital Manaus, which made black people living under captivity free on May 24, 1884. The city was the second in the country to decree the abolition. The first was the town of Redenção, currently Acarape, in Ceará, on January 1, 1883.

Nowadays

Christian Rocha believes that nowadays it is necessary to overcome prejudice since it is still rooted in the population. “The slavery still finds support in the lives of those who are nurtured on ignorance and hatred, nurtured on prejudice and discrimination, where they say they are not racist and every day commit crimes, imputing racism to the black person is like blaming the woman for the harassment she receives, the child for pedophilia, the elderly for the mistreatment, and so on,” he said.

For the writer, researcher and historian, Gaitano Antonaccio, the date needs to be better remembered by society. According to him, the state has lived a conjuncture in which racism has been returning acintimately and it is still necessary to combat discrimination by reviving the struggles that led to the liberation of slaves in all countries.

“Slavery has only changed its concept. Racism unfortunately exists in many forms and, to me, it seems that the worst of them is the one that has been enslaving the mind,” lamented the historian.

Freemasonry Influence

Antonaccio says that the abolition of slavery in Amazonas was strongly influenced by Freemasonry, because the governor of the Amazonas Province, Theodoreto Carlos de Faria Souto, was a freemason Grand Master and Grand Commander of the Order.

The historian reminds us that the actions of Freemasonry are much more comprehensive than one can imagine, because it is an institution whose spirit is the very longing for perfection, inherent to the essence of Nature, in the scope of which man exists, lives, and evolves, according to freemason Alfredo de Paiva, quoted in Rodolfo Guimarães Valle’s book “Centenário Maçônico” (Masonic Centennial).

“The episode of the liberation of slaves in Amazonas, which began with the Province President, Dr. José Lustosa da Cunha Paranaguá, was concluded by Dr. Theodoreto Carlos de Faria Souto, who declared slavery extinct in Amazonas,” he concluded.

The liberation of the slaves was celebrated in a public act, on July 10, 1884, at the Pavilhão da Liberdade, in the Heliodoro Balbi square, formerly the September 28th square.

Translation: Bruno Sena