SOURCE: Sayers, Raymond S. “The Negro Theme in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century.” In The Negro in Brazilian Literature, pp. 65-72. New York: Hispanic Institute in the United States, 1956.

In the following excerpt, Sayers discusses antislavery sentiment in Brazilian literature in the first half of the nineteenth century, finding that this theme was most commonly found in newspapers and periodicals that generally criticized the slave trade more than the institution of slavery itself.

Anti-slavery Literature Before 1825

Attacks on slavery on humanitarian or moral grounds continued in France and England during the second half of the eighteenth century, and they reached such a pitch that both countries abolished slavery in their colonies in the first half of the nineteenth century. Although, there was an anti-slavery note in eighteenth century Brazilian prose, it was much less important than in France and England. Even by the end of the...