Properly speaking, a true slave has no legal rights. Perhaps the words
privileges and permits are happier. At any rate, the obligations and
restrictions in the Old South were far more stringent than those on
the plantations and urban districts of Brazil. Privileges and
restrictions for slaves in the South varied according to the laws of
the States; whereas in Brazil the centralized colonial government
tended to unify what slavery legislation there was.
In both countries, theoretically, a master was liable for
indiscriminately killing his slaves or for practising cruelty. To be
sure, the penalty was slight for so great an offense, but public
opinion in Brazil, especially, more than once pointed its finger at
the brutal master. In practice, even the slightest defense of a
maltreated slave was rarely heard before the magistrates, for no slave
in the case of the South could bear witness against a white. In Brazil
the ouvidor of the province was the one to punish the cruel master,
but then, who would dare report?[32] In Brazil, if a slave was unruly
he was to be turned over to state authorities, and duly given a public
punishment.[33]
In the Old South it was possible under certain circumstances for the
slave to buy his own freedom, that is, if the master was kindly
disposed. In Brazil, it is commonly affirmed that the master was
obliged to free his slave if the latter could furnish a sum equivalent
to his market price.[34] As a matter of practice, it was easy for the
master to deny freedom to his slave under such conditions, and the
slave for lack of strength would have to accept the outcome meekly.
Furthermore, Christie, British envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary in Brazil during the period of the American Civil War,
in a letter to Earl Russell in June, 1861, declares that no such law
actually exists on the statute books of Brazil, as that the slave has
the right to appear before a magistrate, have his price fixed and to
purchase his freedom.[35]
Moreover, the Brazilian slave exercised some right to change masters.
The master set a price upon his slave. Then the slave with a note,
declaring the master's intentions, might seek out some neighboring
planter with a good reputation, and if the desired new master decided
to pay the price set, the old master, according to Luccock,[36] was
obliged to sell the slave. In practice the plan did not work out so
well, because one planter did not care to interfere in the other's
affairs, and often the evaluation of the slave could not be agreed
upon.[37]
A slave could be and was manumitted in both the United States and
Brazil. In Brazil manumission could be accomplished in the following
ways: (1) the slave could purchase himself; (2) his master could
liberate him during his life; (3) or he could manumit him at his
death; (4) a Negro woman who had brought ten children into the world
by virtue of her tenth became free; (5) also, the price of a new-born
babe was so slight, that often the infant was purchased its freedom by
friends.[38] In fact, manumission had been so extensive, that by 1818
mulattoes and free Negroes had become a considerable part of the
population.[39] In the United States there were 488,070 freedmen in
1860.[40]
As for holding common ordinary citizen's rights, the Negro slave in
both countries was out of consideration. In the Old South, for
instance, a slave could be arrested, tried, and condemned with but one
witness against him, and without a jury.[41] In Brazil he was equally
as defenceless. Professional slave runaway catchers might pounce upon
a slave who was about his duty, imprison him, subject him to
indignities, on the ground that he was a fugitive, and return him to
his master, claiming money for their trouble. In such a sad case, no
one would take the slave's part, none would believe his story.[42]
The privileges of the slave as to being secure against violent
treatment, of securing his own freedom, of selecting another master,
or of claiming any plain citizen's immunities whatsoever, then, were
very slight in both Brazil and the United States, but even more so in
our own Southland.