The living conditions of the Negroes in both the United States and
Brazil varied in relation to the type of work. Domestic slaves in the
former were generally treated well in the households of their masters.
In Brazil the domestic slave was usually a Creole.[19] But our
interest centers largely on the manner by which the _agricultural_
slave lived, for after all, in him lies the crux to the whole problem.
In both Brazil and America slaves were quartered on the great
plantations in rude huts. Their diet was simple. Corn meal, bacon, and
sweet potatoes were chief items in the diet of the American slave. In
Brazil the slave was fed farina (the flour of the mandioca root), salt
fish or salt meat, sometimes bacon, and in the mining districts corn
flour. In both countries the slave was rudely clad. In Brazil his
outfit consisted of a shirt and pants of cotton and a straw hat.[20]
In the United States slaves on the large plantations began work at
sunrise, and toiled to the crack of the whip on the great plantations
until sundown. Women and children, only half grown, were compelled to
do their share in the fields. In Brazil conditions generally were
easier for the slave. The Portuguese planter was perhaps less anxious
to "drive" the work out of his bondsmen than the more enterprising
Anglo-Saxon. Accordingly, we are told that at three in the afternoon,
at least at Pernambuco, the heart of the sugar belt, work ceased, and
the slave had the remainder of the day to himself, time which many
slaves employed in cultivating a private plot of their own, hoping
some day to earn enough thereby to purchase their freedom. They, like
their northern brothers, were supervised in the field by a "feitor" or
taskmaster, usually white, though frequently a Creole, mulatto,
freedman, or even in cases, another slave.[22]
Slaves in America welcomed Sundays and the days around Christmas as
periods of rest and recreation.[23] In Brazil not only did the slaves
have Sundays and Christmas, but something like over thirty holidays on
the Catholic calendar. Incidentally, showing there was still a breath
of humanity in a stifling age of oppression, it is declared in the
"Correio Braziliense" for December, 1815, on page 738, that although
the Portuguese had ceased to stop work on many of these holidays, the
thirty-five holidays were still enforced as days of cessation of
labor in Brazil in order that the slaves might still enjoy the days of
rest.[24]
The Negro slave in Africa, according to DuBois, lived generally a
polygamous family life. When he came to the Southern Colonies his
whole family life was made irregular and unhappy, due to the evil
conditions of slavery there. The slave might marry on the plantation,
but the very next day he might be sold, and separated from his wife
and parents. The auction block is the foulest stain on the whole
parasitic institution of slavery in the United States. In Brazil the
sale of slaves from one master to another apparently was never as
extensive as in our own country.[25] Moreover, the sanctity of
marriage was far more highly regarded in Brazil than in the United
States. A slave, who wished to be married had first to learn the
requisite number of prayers; he must understand the confession, and
receive the sacraments. Then, having received the consent of the
master, he was married by the vicar. A slave might marry a freeman. If
the husband were free and the wife slave, the child of the union was a
slave; vice versa, a slave father and free mother produced a free
child.[26]
In language, we find in both the Old South and Brazil, that the
Africans soon forgot their native dialects, and adopted the tongue of
their new home, and their language did not materially influence that
of their masters in America.
Religion was a vital factor in slave life. In the Old South, religion
was at first discouraged among the slaves. There was a reason for
this, for masters knew that nowhere in Christian teachings were there
provisions for enslaving Christians.[27] Never was religion encouraged
to a great degree. In fact, as late as 1831, Virginia passed a
measure, declaring that neither free nor slave Negro might "preach,
exhort, or teach in any Negro assemblage." Nevertheless, religious
sentiment waxed ever stronger. Beginning with the taboos of the
deported tribal priest, and gradually becoming influenced by
Christianity, the great Negro Church[28] grew. Sometimes the Negroes
were allowed to worship under the same roof as their white
superiors,[29] but they usually had to steal away to some secret place
for this purpose. In Brazil, however, Christianization of the slaves
was an essential. Before the Negroes in Angola (Portuguese West
Africa) embarked on the slave vessel for Brazil, they were baptized
"en masse." Arriving in the new world, they were branded with the
crown, which proved that they had been baptized and that the king's
duty on them had been paid. Next, they had to learn the doctrines of
the Church and the duties of the religion they were about to embrace.
Slaves from the other parts of Africa were Christianized after a year
following arrival, during which time they had to learn certain
prayers.[30] Most interesting is the existence among the Brazilian
slaves of their own religious brotherhoods, to join which was the
ambition of every Negro slave. These brotherhoods had their own
versions of the Virgin Mary and Our Lady of the Rosary had her hands
and face painted black.[31]