In 1794, the French revolutionary tide was coming to an icy point, claiming in the Europe of the kings that all men had an equal right to happiness, not caring if they had to turn the world upside down to achieve their aim.
In the richest French sugar producing colony, the plantation owners tried to obtain their autonomy and the black men that had been freed demanded the citizenship that had been promised to them in 1789, making possible the insurrection of those still captive, in August 1791, which led to the creation of Haiti in 1804, the first American territory free of slavery.
Since 1789, the absolutist Portuguese State made every effort to stop the French, democratic and liberal revolutionary ideals from reaching the city and the colonies. In Brazil, all unusual foreign visitors were watched carefully and any luggage that arrived in the ships was searched looking for books and subversive pamphlets. The zeal was extreme in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil's principal colonial port.
The ex-capital of the colony, with sixty thousand inhabitants, narrow, irregular and dirty streets, steep slopes, churches, monasteries and low houses with attics, Salvador was the second metropolis of the Portuguese empire, after Lisbon. Two thirds of the population was black or half-caste; a third was white or native.
In 1789, the colony was having difficulties, but Bahia was experiencing a certain economic success, due to the exports of sugar, cotton, indigo, liquor, tobacco and other products. In spite of its commercial wealth, Salvador depended on the products of rural areas, since it did not produce anything. The dictates of the metropolis prohibited the manufacturing of any products in Portugal's Brazilian colonies.
Many goods from several of the principal capitals in Europe, came through Portugal to be consumed in Salvador or to be re-exported to inland cities and other nearby governatures: olive oil, weapon, gunpowder, textiles, garments, wine, domestic wares, construction materials, etc. The principal imported product was the African worker. The commerce in Bahia, specially that of captives, was controlled by rich merchants, mainly Portuguese.
As in the rest of the colony, Bahia's society was organized in social classes. At the top of the pyramid were the big plantations owners and the merchants; at the bottom were thousands of captives. Every year, lots of Africans were shipped to Salvador. The slave community was heterogeneous, since it was divided between prisoners born in Brazil, of different skin colours and trades, and Africans of several cultures and languages.
In between the slave-traders and the slaves there were the free, if poor men of the colony; with few possibilities of social mobility, but with "clean blood". They were the managers, cashiers, farmers, sailors, shop keepers or were part of the lower clergy and lower ranks of the civil service and the military. They also competed with waged slaves and those that hired themselves as artisans. All positions of prestige were reserved for those of Portuguese birth.
In Salvador, free men of colour were employed as craftsmen, in small commerce, as soldiers and low rank officers in front line troops, all of them for a miserable wage. To survive, soldiers usually had to have a second job. They really had a very hard time. In addition to the scarce possibilities of improving their economic situation, they were stigmatized for the colour of their skin, which denied them any access to any civil, religious and administrative middle ranking positions.
At the end of the 18th century, Brazil was a great fountain of resources for the upper classes. The commercial monopolies and the various taxes were eating into part of the revenues so the cost of life was getting dearer in Brazil. The poor of Salvador often went hungry and were forced to beg for food.
Among local leaders started to grow the idea that the colonial regime was a parasite and these ideas were strengthened by the independence of the United States and the liberal, revolutionary ideas coming from France. Ten years previously a conspiracy for the independence of Minas Gerais had been put down.
In 1798, Salvador experienced the only colonial and imperial revolt in Brazil, with proposals that cut through colonial society from top to bottom. These proposals suggested a democratic reorganization for the region outside the slavery system.
Part II - The seditious satirical posters of Salvador de Bahía
August 12, 1798, Fernando Jose of Portugal, governor of the captaincy of Bahia, then 43 years old, became aware that at dawn, twelve "seditious" posters had been placed, at well frequented places of Salvador, encouraging the people to create the Republic of Bahia. Even though very few people could read, the contents of the posters had a big after effect as the contents were transmitted by word of mouth.
Subversive agitation was nothing new. At the beginning of 1797, someone placed some "satirical posters " on the public scaffold, which was burnt at the dead of night. The culprits were never caught or punished. That act was a crime against the crown since the macabre way to protest had a symbolic meaning. In July of that year, other manifestoes were distributed all over the city.
It is possible to identify the political, social and trade union orientation of the movement by the texts. In these, the authors defended the concepts of equality, the republic, the independence of Bahia, free commerce and the freedom to produce goods, as well as praising revolutionary France and demanding the end to all kinds of social and racial discrimination. It threatened the clergy that was against new ideas and promised an increase in salary for soldiers and front line officers.
In statements made by witnesses who had heard about the manifestoes, without actually having read them, there was a clear reformulation of the content of the texts suggesting claims of support for the under-classes in ways that were not reflected in the actual texts, such as the presentation of a table to fix the price of meat. The reconstruction of the contents of the messages in the manifestoes was normal in a society in tension, in which the principal vehicle of transmission of information was the spoken word.
The governor ordered an investigation to be opened to trace the culprits. Before the investigations began, a rumor started circulating in the city suggesting that the pamphlets had been created by soldiers and mulatto officers stationed in the city. Since, in the Bahia of the time, literacy was not at all common, especially among the poor, the authorities compared the hand writing in the manifestoes with that of petitions and claims in government files.
The police investigation pointed towards a suspect. On August 16, the mulatto Domingos da Silva Lisboa was arrested and thrown into prison. He was born in Lisbon, was 43-years old, never knew who his parents were and had made petitions to the government and written letters with antireligious and libertarian ideas. He was a resident of Ladeira da Misericordia and in his house were found more than a hundred books, which at the time was equivalent to an enormous library, specially for a man of scarce resources.
On August 22 appeared two more letters left in a church, with the same hand writing and as Domingo da Silva Lisboa was still in prison, the investigations started again culminating with the arrest and imprisonment on the 23 of Luis Ganzaga das Virgens. He was a 36-year-old mulatto, native of Salvador and attached to the 2nd First Line Regiment. Some liberal literature was found in his house. Some time earlier, Luís Gonzaga, the grandson of a Portuguese man and an African slave, had requested that his promotion in the army should not be obstructed because of the color of his skin.
The imprisonment of the soldier accelerated the conspiracy and soon emerged, at the centre of events, a João de Deus do Nascimento, married, mulatto and a Corporal with the 2nd Regiment, 27 years old, a tailor with well appointed premises in Direita street. Concerned that Luís Gonzaga was likely to talk, the conspirators organized a hasty meeting with all those involved and their sympathizers, with the objective of deciding the future course of the revolt.
The meeting was going to take place on the night of Saturday, 25th August, in the field do Dique, in the area of Desterro, in Salvador, but it was a disaster as only fourteen out of the two hundred supporters expected attended, perhaps because the call to attend was badly handled. In any case all the revolutionaries were in danger of being captured as in a nearby orchard, about a hundred soldiers and slaves were waiting and watching armed with clubs. It is also possible that some of the conspirators left the field do Dique as soon as they realized that an inept trap was about to be sprung on them. The officer in charge was lieutenant colonel Alexandre Teotônio de Souza, who was wearing a white cape.
The meeting was denounced by the freed slave and blacksmith Joaquim José da Veiga and the barber Joaquim José de Santana, a captain in the Third Regiment of Coloured Men militias. As they were invited to take part in the conspiracy, these police informers decided to denounce it to avoid any charges of high treason and to collect any reward on offer.
Later on, Joaquim José de Santana expressed his hope that he would be promoted, according to him, for the very important services rendered and the important role that he played in his militia. Following instructions from the authorities, Joaquim José de Santana and Joaquim José da Veiga took part in the meeting at the do Dique field, to be able to better betray the conspirators. There was a third denunciation after that.
.jpg)
