222 CHAPTER 10 RACE, NATION, AND THE MEANING OF FREEDOM, 1821–1888
Emperor Pedro I, completed the transition to full
Brazilian independence.
REGENCY, REVOLT,AND A BOY EMPEROR
The revolution had been the work of radical liber-
als, who viewed Dom Pedro’s downfall as the fi rst
step toward the establishment of a federal republic,
but the moderates enjoyed its fruits. In effect, the
radicals had played the game of the monarchist lib-
erals, who had guided the movement of secession
from Portugal and later lost infl uence at court as
a result of Dom Pedro’s embrace of conservative
fazendeiros. Dom Pedro’s departure was a victory
for these moderates, who hastened to restore their
ascendancy over the central government and pre-
vent the revolution from getting out of hand.
As a fi rst step, parliament appointed a three-
man regency composed of moderate liberals to
govern for the child emperor until he reached the
age of eighteen. Another measure created a na-
tional guard, recruited from the propertied classes,
to repress urban mobs and slave revolts. Simul-
taneously, the new government began work on
a project of constitutional reform designed to ap-
pease the strong federalist sentiment. After a three-
year debate, parliament approved the Additional
Act of 1834, which gave the provinces elective leg-
islative assemblies with broad powers, including
control over local budgets and taxes. This provi-
sion assured the great landowners a large measure
of control over their regions. The Council of State,
identifi ed with Dom Pedro’s reactionary rule, was
abolished. But centralism was not abandoned, for
the national government continued to appoint
provincial governors with a partial veto over the
acts of the provincial assemblies.
Almost immediately, the regency government
struggled against a rash of revolts, mostly in the
northern provinces, where the economy suffered
from a loss of markets for their staple crops, sugar
and cotton. None occurred in the central southern
zone (the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo,
and Minas Gerais), whose coffee economy pros-
pered and whose planter aristocracy had secure
control of the central government. These revolts
had a variety of local causes. Some were elemental,
popular revolts, such as the so-called cabanagem
(from the word cabana, meaning “cabin”) of Pará,
which originated in the grievances of small trades-
men, farmers, and lower-class elements against
the rich Portuguese merchants who monopolized
local trade. Others, like the republican and sepa-
ratist Sabinada revolt in Bahia (1837–1838), re-
fl ected the frustrations of the planter aristocracy of
this once-prosperous area over its loss of economic
and political power, but it also mobilized the large
majority of black and mixed-race people who had
long advocated slavery’s abolition. A slaveholders’
petition complained about “insubordination” on
plantations where “slaves walk around with arms
and there is to be feared some sad incident, besides
the bad example they give to the neighboring fa-
zendas, especially when, because of the events of
Bahia, the slaves in general are losing their defer-
ence which is so necessary.” Another measure of
the regency’s fear of these abolitionist rebellions
was its 1834 decree of the death penalty for insur-
gent slaves.
Most serious of all was the revolt that broke
out in 1835 in the province of Rio Grande do Sul.
Although it was dubbed the Revolução Farroupilha
(Revolution of the Ragamuffi ns) in contemptuous
reference to its supposed lower-class origins, cattle
barons who more or less controlled the gauchos—
the rank-and-fi le of the rebel armies—actually led
the movement. An intense regionalism, resent-
ment over taxes and unpopular governors imposed
by the central government, and the strength of re-
publican sentiment all induced the revolt that es-
tablished the independent republic of Rio Grande
in 1836. The presence of considerable numbers of
Italian exiles such as Giuseppe Garibaldi—ardent
republicans who opposed slavery—gave a special
radical tinge to the revolt. For almost a decade, two
states—one a republic and one an empire—existed
on Brazilian territory.
The inability of imperial troops to quell the Rio
Grande revolt further weakened the regency gov-
ernment, and in 1838 the Balaiada rebellion raged
across the northern provinces of Maranhão, Piauí,
and Ceará. Initiated in Maranhão, the province