BrazilWho was José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva?
José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva was born in Santos and studied law and natural sciences at the University of Coimbra. He spent decades in Europe as a mineralogist and taught metallurgy in Coimbra before returning to Brazil in 1819. In 1822 he became chief minister to the prince regent Pedro and helped lead the declaration of independence. Elected to the Constituent Assembly, he broke with the emperor, and when Pedro I dissolved the assembly in November 1823 he was arrested and deported to France. He returned in 1829, served briefly as tutor to the young Pedro II and died in 1838.
Political views
Called for an immediate end to the slave trade and the gradual emancipation of the enslaved in a memorial prepared for the 1823 Constituent Assembly.
Source: pt.wikisource.orgArgued that a liberal and durable constitution was impossible in a country inhabited by a vast enslaved population.
Source: pt.wikisource.orgWarned that slave-based farming was destroying Brazil's forests and urged preserving them as an inheritance for future generations.
Source: pt.wikisource.orgProposed building a new capital in the interior of Brazil to house the court, legislature and high courts.
Source: pt.wikisource.orgWrote proposals for the 'civilization' of Indigenous peoples through peaceful missions, schooling and integration into settled society.
Source: pt.wikisource.orgSupported a constitutional monarchy under Pedro I that would keep the former Portuguese provinces united as a single empire.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAs minister in 1822 he had political rivals he suspected of conspiracy deported and opened a judicial inquiry against them.
Source: pt.wikisource.orgPromoted public instruction and scientific knowledge as foundations of the new nation.
Source: pt.wikisource.org
Legacy
José Bonifácio is honored in Brazil as the 'Patriarch of Independence' and credited with holding the new country together as a single state rather than several republics. Admirers highlight his early antislavery arguments, his plan for an inland capital later realized in Brasília and his scientific career. Critics note that his antislavery memorial went unheard for decades, that his vision of a 'homogeneous nation' assumed the cultural assimilation of Indigenous and African-descended people, and that as minister he persecuted political rivals. Historians also stress that independence rested on an alliance with landowning elites that kept slavery in place.
In their words
It is time, and more than time, that we end so barbarous and butchering a trade; it is also time that we gradually abolish even the last vestiges of slavery among us, so that in a few generations we may form a homogeneous nation.