André Rebouças

Brazilian engineer and abolitionist

• Born: January 13, 1838
• Birthplace: Cachoeira, Bahia, Brazil
• Died: May 9, 1898
• Place of death: Funchal, Madeira

The grandson of a freed slave, Rebouças demonstrated that upward social mobility was possible for some people of color in nineteenth century Brazil. Trained as an engineer, he directed large construction projects designed to modernize Brazil; he also became involved in the abolitionist struggle and helped bring about the end of slavery in Brazil.

Early Life

André Rebouças (reh-BOH-suhs) was born in Brazil’s sugar-producing province of Bahia. His grandfather had immigrated to Brazil from Portugal and married a freed black woman. Their mixed-race children were encouraged to pursue studies that focused on the high culture of Europe. Their oldest son, the uncle of André Rebouças, followed a career in music. Proficient on violin and piano, he completed his training in France and Italy. Upon returning to Brazil he became an orchestra conductor who was much admired for the violin solos he played on a Stradivarius that he brought from Europe. Another son, André’s father, became a well-known lawyer. Self-taught in classical languages and literature, he was both a talented lawyer and an astute politician. During the early 1820’s he took the side of those who supported an independent Brazil ruled by Pedro I. For his efforts in bringing his province of Bahia into the nativist fold, he was rewarded with a special commendation from the new emperor as well as with appointments to public office. In 1828, he was elected to the National Assembly.

When André was eight years old, his family moved to the capital city of Rio de Janeiro. While living in Bahia, his father had taken charge of his education. In Rio, however, André was enrolled in local schools, in which he prepared successfully for the difficult entrance examination for the prestigious national military academy. A brilliant student at the academy, he completed his training in mathematics and engineering at the top of his class. It was customary for the best graduates of the military academy to be granted scholarships to complete their educations in Europe. However, because André was considered a “mulatto,” he was denied that honor, so his father paid for him to go to Europe himself.

Rebouças returned from Europe in 1861. Three years later, Brazil went to war with Paraguay in 1864. Rebouças immediately joined the Volunteers of the Fatherland and was sent to the front, where he advised military commanders on strategy. Dismayed at the lack of preparation evident in Brazil’s army, he became committed to modernizing the military. However, he became one of the thousands of soldiers who contracted smallpox in Paraguay and had to return to Rio de Janeiro in 1866 to convalesce.

Life’s Work

With his exceptionally fine mind and solid training, Rebouças rose to professional and political prominence during the 1870’s. Imbued with the spirit of his age, he was determined to help launch Brazil into the modern era. Although he had friends and admirers in the highest circles of government, racial prejudice at times hindered his professional opportunities. For example, when he was hired to oversee the building of a modern customs house and docks in Rio de Janeiro, he was paid only one-third the salary that his British predecessor had earned.

Frustrated by the roadblocks he faced while in government service, Rebouças became convinced that politicians were hindering Brazil’s move forward into the industrial era. He also came to believe that the Brazilian economy, built on African slavery, did not provide the necessary incentives to foster modernization. Only a radical transformation of the social base, aided by large-scale European immigration, would bring progress to his nation. Like many prosperous Brazilians, Rebouças and his family owned slaves, but they freed them in 1870.

During the 1870’s, after being rejected several times because of his skin color, Rebouças was given a professorship at Brazil’s prestigious Polytechnical School. When he became involved in the abolitionist campaigns of the 1880’s, he encouraged his students to support the cause of freedom for slaves. He befriended the most influential abolitionists, wrote newspaper articles and pamphlets in favor of abolition, and contributed a large portion of his private funds to promote abolition. In his view, a modern Brazil would be possible only after eliminating the concentration of land in the hands of a few families. He therefore urged that significant land reform accompany abolition so that freed slaves and European immigrants might have access to land of their own.

As a young man, Rebouças had believed Brazil should follow the North American model of industrialization and supported republicanism. During the 1880’s, however, he became convinced that a Brazilian republic would be at the mercy of an agricultural oligarchy that would block land reform, so he changed his position to support a constitutional monarchy in which the monarch would promote the reforms that must be undertaken for the good of the nation.

Rebouças was a prolific writer. Not only did he keep a detailed diary, but he also wrote frequent letters to influential friends and to editors of major newspapers in Rio de Janeiro, and contributed articles to newspapers in Brazil and abroad—including The Times of London. His writings enabled him to share with a broad audience his vision of the future of Brazil and the need to end slavery.

In time, Rebouças became a good friend of Brazil’s Emperor Pedro II. After slavery was abolished in 1888, Rebouças deepened his support for Brazil’s royal family. When a military coup deposed the emperor and installed a republic in 1889, Rebouças’s hopes for a modern Brazil guided by a benevolent king were dashed. He decided to leave Brazil and accompanied the emperor into exile in Europe. After Pedro’s death in 1891, Rebouças traveled to Africa but became disenchanted with life there. In 1893, he settled on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

Although Rebouças yearned for Brazil, and his friends there urged him to return home, he felt he could not. As his health and financial situation deteriorated, he became increasingly despondent. On May 9, 1898, exactly ten years after the Brazilian parliament had passed the law freeing the slaves, he was found dead on a beach at Funchal. At the time, many people suspected that he had committed suicide. In any case, it was generally agreed that his death was a sad end to the life of a person who had contributed much to his country.

Significance

André Rebouças illustrates the opportunities—and the limitations—open to Brazilians of all races in the nineteenth century. Although he lived in a nation marked by African slavery and intense racial prejudice, his own family transcended the barriers of race and rose to positions of high influence. They did this primarily by accepting the cultural values of the white elite. Rebouças is remembered in Brazil for participating in the abolitionist campaign and for his vision of a modern Brazil built on agrarian reform. He also became a poignant symbol of those who saw in Brazil’s enlightened monarchy the best hope for a brighter future and were devastated by its demise. In honor of his contributions as an engineer, the longest tunnel in Rio de Janeiro, linking the suburbs to the city, was named for him.

Bibliography

Andrews, George Reid. Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. The author provides an excellent background to abolition in Brazil, setting Rebouças in the context of his friendship with Brazil’s abolitionist emperor.

Azevedo, Celia Maria Marinho de. Abolitionism in the United States and Brazil: A Comparative Perspective. New York: Garland, 1995. In this comparative study, the author highlights Rebouças’s view that slavery in Brazil hindered development and his hope that European immigration would promote progress.

Conrad, Robert Edgar. Children of God’s Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994. An excellent collection of primary source materials on Brazilian slavery, including an excerpt from Rebouças’s diary in which he described the racism he experienced during a visit to New York City in 1873.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Destruction of Brazilian Slavery, 1850-1888. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972. Includes a thorough account of the abolitionist activities of Rebouças, who was one of several mulattoes who struggled in different ways to eradicate slavery in Brazil.

Nabuco, Carolina. The Life of Joaquim Nabuco. Translated by Ronald Hilton. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950. In this biography of one of Brazil’s leading abolitionists, his daughter describes some of the people who collaborated with him in the struggle to end slavery in Brazil. André Rebouças became a good friend of Joaquim Nabuco as they worked together to promote abolition.

Skidmore, Thomas E. “Racial Ideas and Social Policy in Brazil, 1870-1940.” In The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870-1940, edited by Richard Graham. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990. Useful for a description of the black middle class to which Rebouças belonged, and its contribution to the struggle against slavery.

Spitzer, Leo. Lives in Between: Assimilation and Marginality in Austria, Brazil, West Africa, 1780-1945. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1989. The best account available in English of three generations of the Rebouças family. Important for its biographical information, it also discusses the implications of upward mobility in Brazil through “whitening” and assimilating into the dominant culture.