Show emancipation IN BRAZIL THE advance which the human race is making in morals does not keep pace with its progress in intelligence and its opportunities for ethical and religious growth hence the condemns i on which rests upon it Butin some respects at least and espe especially C tally those which relate to the principle pr I 1 of liberty the world is certainly advancing toward a higher plane this fact 1 is a proven by the steady curtailment of the domain of human slavery A few days ago a bill providing for the emancipation of slaves was passed by the brazilian senate which ch had bad pre passed the chambers the bill will become a law beyond a doubt for the emperor dom pedro whose signature only is now lacking to make it such is at the head ol of the political party favoring emancipation it is stated that the process of liberating the slaves under the bill will not be an abrupt one but will be progressive but it is expected that it will be entirely completed within a comparatively short space ot time the history of slavery in brazil is interesting and instructive the mouth of the amazon is directly opposite that of the congo and the temptation to brazilian planters to ampt slaves was too strong to be re r fisted hence early in the present century the slave traffic between those two rivers had assumed great imports importance uce la in 1827 I 1 england treated with brazil for the suppression of the traffic le but the latter at government made no earnest nor persistent effort to accomplish this till 1865 when the traffic was largely but not entirely stopped dom pedro now new lying at deaths door in italy merits the affectionate regard of the colored race especially in brazil tor for his bis efforts to abolish slavery he commenced the work in earnest immediately after the close of the american civil war and sought to have a law passed under which the children of slave mothers would be free he was unsuccessful but in 1871 a law was enacted by which it was provided that the children of slave mothers born after september 28 1871 should be free at the age of 21 at the same time a veral several hundred crown slaves were freed freed and further provisions were adopted tending in the direction of emancipation A tax was assessed on all slaves for the purpose of creating a fund with which to purchase the freedom of some seme of them and in this wa way in fourteen years b between 1871 anTI and 1885 were emancipated ci abed atan at an average cost of each ru in the meantime the antislavery anti slavery sentiment had grown rapidly in strength and extent as may be seen from the fact that in those fourteen years slaves were freed by their owners or by generosity the number of slaves remaining in the empire in 1885 is given as la in 1884 two provinces freed their slaves and schemes of various kinds such as entertainments fairs bazaars etc were adopted in great numbers for the purpose of raising funds with which t to 0 purchase the freedom of slaves at I 1 length a law has been passed looking t to 0 the speedy emancipation of all the b budmen bondmen in the empire the fact that so many slaves have been made free in a country like bra brazil z 11 without the loss of a single life a and na without violent demonstrations of any kind will stand forth as a remar remarkable lEable one in history and dom pedro one of the most sympathetic and democratic emperors emper birs of modern times will be credited by the historian with having done much to bring about the accomplishment ment of the desirable consummation |