See also America: Texts and Sources
BAHIA IN THE LATE 18th & EARLY 19th CENTURY
- Birgitte Holten reviews Bert J. Barickman's A Bahian Counterpoint: Sugar, Tobacco, Cassava and Slavery in the Reconcavo, 1780-1860
- The history of slavery, the slave trade, abolition and emancipation [SLAVERY@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]
08-06-99
H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-LatAm@h-net.msu.edu (April, 1999)
Bert J. Barickman: _A Bahian Counterpoint. Sugar, Tobacco, Cassava,
and Slavery in the Reconcavo, 1780-1860_. Stanford, Calif.:
Stanford University Press, 1998. Xx + 276 pp. Tables, figures,
maps, appendix, bibliography, and index. $55.00 (cloth), ISBN
0-8047-2632-9.
Reviewed for H-LatAm by Birgitte Holten <holten@coco.ihi.ku.dk>,
University of Copenhagen
The importance of being fed
Tradition has made out of Brazilian history the narrative of
capitalist export agriculture--to some extent neglecting the obvious
fact that all those people occupied in sugar making also had to feed
themselves. This problem has--also traditionally--been pushed away
with some remarks on slaves' kitchen gardens and cassava cultivation
on the big estates.
Already in the first _History of Brazil_, written in the early
seventeenth century by the Franciscan Vicente of Salvador, sugar is
pointed out as the pivotal point of Brazilian economy and
history.[1] This tendency was elevated to an almost mythical
dimension in Gilberto Freyre's legendary--and much critisized _The
Masters and the Slaves_ from 1947. The concentration on
monoculture, _latifundia_, and slavery have been the constants of
Brazilian economic and social history, in what has been called the
"plantationist" perspective (p. 1).
The stated purpose of Bert Barickman's book is to "confront the
plantationist view on its home ground" (p. 2), arguing that even
when applied to Freyre's archetypical plantation region, this model
proves inadequate. Barickman goes even further into the widths and
depths of agricultural history, focusing on the fundamental
question: "how plantation and nonplantation forms of slavebased
agriculture, together with a vigorous local market, allowed the
growth and expansion of the Bahian export economy" (p. 2).
Doing this, the book questions some of the generally accepted views
on the fundamental character of Brazilian colonial and imperial
society. One is the common assumption that the social relations
were exclusively based on the master/slave dichotomy, the economy
being equally biased in its focus on the export production. Other
accepted truths have been that the internal market in Brazil was
weak and undeveloped; that the food for the use of the great estates
was produced almost exclusively on the same estates; that an
eventual surplus production was disposed of in a quite haphazard
way; and, finally, that slavery per se prevented the emergence of an
internal market.
Barickman demonstrates, to the contrary, that the local production
and distribution of foodstuffs was fundamental to the expansion of
export agriculture (p.188). The great sugar planters relied on
purchasing the foodstuffs they needed for their slaves and
households on this local market, concentrating their own slaves'
activity--and their own lands--on export agriculture. Cassava grows
well on the sandy and poor soils in interior regions of the Bahian
_Reconcavo_ , while sugar needs rich soils like the _massapes_
situated near the coast. Not surprisingly, soil quality is shown to
have been an important factor for the choice of crop. Slaves were
present in all types of production -- from the large plantations who
could boast of up to two hundred slaves to the humble cassava-grower
with just one or two hands. However, even demonstrating the
hitherto neglected importance of the Bahian internal market, as well
as its growth during the period of 1780-1860, Barickman stresses the
fact that this market did not possess the dynamics necessary to
transform the regional economy as a whole.
The inquiry follows two strategies: First, it investigates the
relationship between production for local needs (especially cassava
flour) and the export economy concentrated on sugar and tobacco,
demonstrating the importance of the production and marketing of
essential foodstuffs to the export economy. Second, it makes a
structural survey of Bahian agriculture, comparing patterns of land
tenure, the use of slave labor, and agricultural practices in the
production of the Reconcavo's three main crops.
Chapter One, "Introduction", starts out from the historiographical
context, arriving at a persistent criticism of the "plantationist
view of Brazilian History" and the tradition depicting Brazil as
"one vast plantation". This is, as Barickman rightfully stresses,
an extremely vital tradition which only recently has been
questioned. The resulting dismissal of the surrounding agricultural
settings as irrelevant means that important parts of history have
been neglected--the diversity of slave-based production, the very
close relationship of export agriculture, internal economy and
slavery--leading to the ignorance of an even more crucial
problem--the expansion of the export economy requiring a local
market for foodstuffs and the like not grown on the sugar producing
estates. The study is finally placed in a wider and more
international context. Fernando Ortiz' classical survey of sugar
and tobacco production in Cuba, _A Cuban Counterpoint_, is cited as
an important inspiration for the book, leaving a clear imprint on
the title.[2] A further intention of the study is to create a link
between the recent studies on the Brazilian internal economy and the
traditional studies on the export economy, and, even more
ambitiously, it is planned as part of a greater comparative study on
an international basis, focusing on the inclusion of the American
slavery and export-agriculture regions in the emerging world
economy.
Chapter Two, "The Export Economy, 1760-1860," treats the
macro-economic framework for the agricultural development of the
_Reconcavo_. After the economic swamp of mid-century, Brazil
experienced, during the second half of the eighteenth century, the
rare phenomenon of being the economic center of the Portuguese
empire. The growth of exportations continued after independence,
only gradually shifting from sugar and twist tobacco to coffee and
cigars. But this economic success-story did not imply in
qualitative changes and improvements -- rather the opposite. The
traditional sugar making process resulted in a high yield of clayed
white sugars, ready to use without further refining. But, as the
British and German tariffs for lower grade sugars were reduced,
almost all Bahian planters shifted their attention to the production
of dark brown mascavo sugars, a cheap raw material for the European
refineries.
Chapter Three, "Farinha de Mandioca - 'The bread of the Land' - and
its Market" demonstrates with multiple citations the real importance
of cassava flour as the nutritive basis for the Bahian
population--rich and poor, rural and urban. The government
frequently ordered a minimum of the land on the estates to be
cultivated with cassava to prevent earlier times' food shortages.
Foodstuffs could be grown in three "regimes". Part of the estate
could be reserved for cassava, worked by the slaves. But in boom
times, the sugar farmers were reluctant to take good sugar soils out
of production. The slaves could be given kitchen plots to grow
vegetables for their own benefit and registers show their selling of
products to the masters. And, finally, cassava was grown on minor
estates, worked by the owner (or squatter) together with his slaves.
All three regimes did exist in the _Reconcavo_, but the preeminence
of the latter two leads to the questioning of the common
supposition, that slavery prevented the emergence of an internal
market in Brazil.
Chapter Four, "Crises and trends in the Regional Farinha Market"
portrays a vivid depiction of the bustling Salvador market. But,
even if the local market was growing, it was in some aspects
vulnerable. Climatic problems formed a constant danger to
agricultural production and the market forces favored the temptation
to enter the sugar complex as a cane grower. This attempt would be
seen as an upward social move, as cane growers, even dependent on
the _senhores de engenho_, were regarded as part of the sugar
complex . Barickman demonstrates, however, that the expansion of
sugar did not imply the contraction of the cassava production. On
the contrary, while prices remained stable, the output of _farinha_
rose during the period studied. While more slaves were working in
the sugar industry, more cassava was planted to feed them--a neat
complementary relationship between the external and the internal
economy.
Chapter Five, "Land" initiates a triad of chapters on the
fundamental production structures. One of the conditions for the
simultaneous growth of both sugar and cassava cultivation was
Bahia's hollow agricultural frontier. There were great
possibilities for expansion, even in readily accessible areas within
a fair distance. The constant need for firewood for the cauldrons
made the forests disappear, giving way to new cultivations. Land
was not a scarce resource in nineteenth-century Bahia--although a
source of social position and prices were low. A general tendency
for the three main crops was that sugar was grown on great estates,
tobacco on medium size, and cassava on the small ones. But the size
of the individual estate was not as stable as has traditionally been
supposed. Katia Queiroz de Mattoso has demonstrated this in her
magistral study on Bahia in the nineteenth century, arguing that the
Portuguese inheritance laws still impeded the accumulation of
property during generations.[3]
Chapter Six, "Labor", argues that slaves were fundamental in all
parts of the _Reconcavo_. On the other hand, wage labor was
extremely rare. The part of the labor force that was not enslaved
tended to be _agregados_, free lodgers on a plot of land who could
be called on to perform extra work needed on the farm. Conditions
changed about 1850, as the Atlantic slave trade finally and
definitively stopped. Slaves had been in abundant supply and
slave-prices were low. But after 1850, slaves tended to follow the
money--being sold to the new boom-area, the coffee plantations in
Sao Paulo. Slaves continued to form a substantial part of the
working force in Bahia where readily accessible land was still so
abundant that the free labor force tended to turn into
small-holders.
Chapter Seven, "Production" gives a survey of the methods of
cultivation for the three main crops, stressing the diversification
of agriculture, especially in the final years of the period.
Chapter Eight, "Conclusions" puts a special stress on this diversity
which has been so neglected in the history of Brazilian agriculture.
The general acceptance of the plantationist view has efficiently
overshadowed the underlying complexity. No doubt sugar was a
fundamental factor in economy and society, but the focusing on one
single crop has biased the picture and hindered the true
understanding of society, even in the proper center of sugar
production.
In his book Barickman offers a genuinely new vision of the Bahian
agriculture, in the new microhistorical tradition promising very
interesting results. New sources of documentation have been
introduced in Brazilian historiography lately. The great departure
from the traditional consensus, that the sources important for the
study of the colonies are found in the archives of the European
motherland, has produced a lot of newly found treasures in the
municipical archives. Municipal studies are still few-- the results
necessarily being geographically scattered. Stanley Stein showed
the way already in 1958 in his pioneering study of Vassouras,[4]
followed by the rightly celebrated study of Rio Claro by Warren
Dean.[5] But while both these studies placed the focus on the big
estates and the export economy--"a grande lavoura"--Barickman shows
new ways in his demonstration of the importance of the smaller
estates, even in the center of sugar production.
Municipal documentation can bring us very close to the unimportant
persons of history--to those who normally only appear as anonymous
numbers. The post-mortem inventories are one of the most suggestive
sources of this kind, bringing the historian almost inside the house
of some humble person, knowing the names of his children, his three
pairs of holed stockings, and his only slave. The temptation of
citing individual cases is inevitable and Barickman does not escape
some slight abuse. The recent tendency to include this kind of
documentation has created new possibilities for the approach to the
social history of rural Brazil. By the way, I would like to stress
the pioneering work done by Beatriz Ricardina Magalhaes and her
students at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.[6] They have
just finished a huge database of post-mortem inventories from Minas
Gerais for the eighteenth century and are now moving up to the
twentieth.
Even if currencies, weights, and measures of late colonial times and
early empire are much less complicated than in earlier times,
readers and students not accustomed with Brazilian history will
appreciate the explanations in the start of the book. An appendix
informs on sources fundamental for early Brazilian history, post
mortem inventories, and manuscript censuses. This is another well
considered element of the book, making it useful for teaching
purposes, even if it will be difficult for neophytes.
Barickman's interesting proposal about the structures on the Bahian
countryside raises the question of the generality of the described
tendencies. They are shown to exist during the late colonial and
the early imperial period -- a period characterized by expansion of
the economy as well as the external trade and the continuing
availability of African slaves. Would a similar analysis give the
same results for the difficult time before 1780? And, would the
growing dearth of slaves after 1850 mean a rapid decline in the
frequency of slave holding on the small estates? Some
considerations on the greater historical perspective would have made
the book even better, but it does not amount to a crucial problem
facing its other--and--outstanding qualities.
Notes:
[1]. Frei Vicente do Salvador: _Historia do Brasil, 1500-1627_, Sao
Paulo, 1982.
[2]. Ortiz, Fernando: _Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y el azucar_.
Havana, 1940
[3]. Mattoso, Katia Queiroz de: _Bahia, seculo XIX: Uma provincia no
Imperio_. Rio de Janeiro, 1992.
[4]. Stein, Stanley J. Vassouras: _A Brazilian Coffee County,
1850-1900_. New York, 1958 (1976).
[5]. Dean, Warren: _Rio Claro: A Brazilian Plantation System,
1820-1920_. Stanford, 1976.
[6]. Magalhaes, Beatriz Ricardina: Criacao de um banco de dados
sobre o seculo XVIII mineiro. _Revista do Departamento de Historia_,
UFMG, Belo Horizonte, 1987.
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- Ismael Musah on Islam in Bahia
- The history of slavery, the slave trade, abolition and emancipation [SLAVERY@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]
From: IN%"iumusah@YorkU.CA" "Ismael Musah" 23-JAN-1999 21:37:55.65
Referring to Leon Jackson and Jack Rokove comments on Muslim slave
narratives, Jan 17, I would like to point here to some additional
literatures that deal with West African Islamic connection and the
trans-Atlantic slave trade, one of these centering Islam in the
trans-Atlantic slave trade is Paul Lovejoy's "Afro-centric" approach in a
number of recent works. Reversing criolization school's discourse, Lovejoy
emphasizes on impact of West African Islam on the Americas. The Jihad
movements of the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria's impact beyond
Africa constitutes one of such examples where Islam according to Lovejoy
represent an African element of sort that played a major role in the
Americas.
In spite of their dislocations and diverse settlement in the diaspora,
Islam accompanied slaves to the New World and was effectual in maintaining
the slaves ties with their motherland. Also Lovejoy and few others such
as, Reis, Joao Jose; Piere Verger on specific grounds, show the appealing
way West African Muslims in Bahia kept their links with their homelands
through a sophisticated network of contact and communication, leading
Lovejoy to believe that Islam in the trans-Atlantic should be viewed
indeed, as a dynamic and instrumental institution that did not only
informed slaves with rebellious aspirations but as well shaped their their
links and ties with the homeland. For instance, the most serious slave
revolt in Bahia, between 1806 and 1826, owed their organizational and
radical inspiration to Sokoto Caliphate Jihad that continued well into the
first decade of the twentieth century.
Some others like Richard Brent Turner in his ISLAM IN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN
EXPERIENCE, (Indiana University Press, 1997), using Allan Austin's African
Muslims in Antebellum America in fact, rooted African-American Islam
heavily on West African slave Muslims ancestors such as, Jobbo Ben
Soloman, Yarrow Mamout, Abd al-Rahman, Salih Bilali, Omar Ibn Said and
others who became inspiring models to recent African-American Muslim
identity.
See, Lovejoy, P.E, "Identifying Enslaved Africans: Methodological and
Conceptual Considerations in Studying the African Diaspora," in
Identifying Enslaved Africans: The Nigerian Hinterland and the African
Diaspora ( Proceedings of the UNESCO/SSHRCC Summer Institute, (York
University, Unpublished, 1997); "Situating Identities in the African
Diaspora: Islam and Slavery in the America, in "MORE THAN COOL REASON":
BLACK RESPONSE TO ENSLAVEMENT, EXILE, AND RESETTLEMENT, (Proceedings of
the Conference at the University of Haifa, January 18-22, 1998,
unpublished). See also, Piere Verger, Trade Relations Between the Bight of
Benin and Bahia, Seventeenth to the nineteenth century, Paris: Mouton and
Ecoles Pratiques des Hautes Etudes, 1968; Ibadan edition, 1976; Reis, Joao
Jose. Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia,
trans Arthur Brakel. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1993.
OTHER REFERENCES
Boxer, C. R,Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire 1415-1825 Oxford 1963
Boxer, C. R,The Colour Question in the Portuguese Colonial Empire 1415-1825 Oxford 1961
Boxer, C. R,The Golden Age of Brazil 1695-1750 Berkely 1962
Boxer, C. R,The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415-1825 London 1969
Eduardo,Octavio da Costa, The Negro in Northern Brazil New York 1948
Lopes Graca,Fernando, Musicalia Salvador 1960
Pierson,Donald, The Negro in Bahia Brazil American Sociological Review 4 5254-33 1939
Schwarz, SugarPlantations in the formation of Brazilian Society Bahia 1550-1835 CUP
Verger, Pierre.Bahia and the West African trade, 1549-1851. Nigeria: Published for theInstitute of African Studies by Ibadan University Press, 1964.
Verger, Pierre.Trade relations between the Bight of Benin and Bahia from the 17th to 19thcentury. Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibadan University Press, 1976.