The Theme in the Work
Slavery enters the book through the childhood of Brás Cubas. In chapter XI, he tells how he broke the head of an enslaved woman who had refused him coconut candy, and how he made Prudêncio, the house boy, his horse for every day; in chapter XII, the 1814 dinner includes news of the newly arrived enslaved Africans.
The theme returns in the inventory and in surveillance. In chapter XLVI, the division of the inheritance includes the house, the chaise, the coachman, the men Paulo and Prudêncio (the latter free for two years), and the silverware; in chapter LXV, the servants enter the forest of lookouts. In chapter LXVIII, at the Valongo, Brás finds Prudêncio, already free, whipping his own slave (see The Whip).
Further on, in chapter CXVII, the chain that Quincas Borba builds up to the lunch plate begins with an African bought in Angola, and in chapter CXXIII the portrait of Cotrim makes him a slave trafficker.
Slavery returns as image and as memory. In chapter XX, Brás says that the bachelor's diploma is a letter of manumission, which gives him freedom and also responsibility. In chapter LXVIII, walking back through the Valongo, he meets Prudêncio, the house boy whom his father freed, whipping a Black man in the square and explaining that he beats his slave for being lazy and drunk. In chapter LXIX, apropos of the whip received and passed on by Prudêncio, he recalls the madman Romualdo, who claimed to be Tamerlane, confesses that he finds no humor in the story, and proposes to set the Romualdos and Prudêncios aside. In chapter CXXIII, Cotrim's portrait shows him as the owner of a dungeon from which enslaved people came down dripping blood, and Brás attributes the harsh treatment to social relations.
The book almost never names slavery: it shows it as a landscape. News of the newly arrived enslaved Africans circulates among the table talk, Prudêncio's manumission enters the inventory as a loss, the African opens the chain of the Humanitist chicken, and the vocabulary of captivity serves as an image for love and for the diploma. The whipping scene is the most explicit, and the text leaves it in two readings: the grace with which Brás tells it, and the clear-eyed analysis in which received violence repeats itself in whoever has someone beneath him. In both, Brás is the first link in the chain.
Where It Appears
- Chapter XI: Brás tells that at six he broke the head of an enslaved woman who had refused him coconut candy, and made Prudêncio, the house boy, his horse for every day.
- Chapter XII: At the 1814 dinner, between the remarks and the wait for the compote, news circulates of the newly arrived enslaved Africans who were on their way, according to letters received from Luanda.
- Chapter XX: Brás says that the bachelor's diploma is a letter of manumission, which gives him freedom and also responsibility.
- Chapter XLVI: Brás, his sister Sabina, and her husband Cotrim discuss the division, which includes the house, the chaise, the coachman, the men Paulo and Prudêncio (the latter free for two years), and the silverware.
- Chapter LXV: Brás includes the servants among the lookouts and eavesdroppers who watch the lovers, and says that this way they took revenge for their servile condition.
- Chapter LXVIII: Walking back through the Valongo, Brás meets Prudêncio, the house boy whom his father freed, whipping a Black man in the square and explaining that he beats his slave for being lazy and drunk.
- Chapter LXIX: Apropos of the whip received and passed on by Prudêncio, Brás recalls the madman Romualdo, who claimed to be Tamerlane, confesses that he finds no humor in the story, and proposes to set the Romualdos and Prudêncios aside.
- Chapter CXVII: To prove that the chicken he had for lunch results from struggles put at the service of his appetite, Quincas Borba tells a chain that begins with an African bought in Angola.
- Chapter CXXIII: In Cotrim's portrait, Brás makes him a slave trafficker and the owner of a dungeon from which the enslaved came down dripping blood, and attributes the harsh treatment to social relations.
Passages
The horse of every day.
Prudêncio, um moleque de casa, era o meu cavalo de todos os dias, Prudêncio, a house boy, was my horse for every day
The news of the trade circulates between the compote and the remarks.
dava a outro notícia recente dos negros novos, que estavam a vir, segundo cartas que recebera de Loanda, he gave another the recent news of the newly arrived Africans, who were on their way, according to letters he had received from Luanda
In the division, manumission is read as a loss.
creio que não libertou a prata?, I believe he did not free the silver?
Prudêncio obeys his former master even in the middle of the punishment.
Nhonhô manda, não pede., Nhonhô commands, he doesn't ask.
Brás gives the explanation for the Valongo scene.
Era um modo que o Prudêncio tinha de se desfazer das pancadas recebidas, [...] transmitindo-as a outro., It was a way Prudêncio had of ridding himself of the beatings he had received, [...] passing them on to another.
Brás attributes Cotrim's harsh treatment to social relations.
não se pode honestamente atribuir à índole original de um homem o que é puro efeito de relações sociais, one cannot honestly attribute to a man's original nature what is purely the effect of social relations