Who was José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva?
Santos, Brazil, was the birthplace in 1763 of José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva. He studied law and natural science in Portugal at Coimbra, then lived in Europe for years as a mineralogist and taught metallurgy. He returned to Brazil in 1819. By 1822 he was chief minister to Prince Pedro, and he helped bring about the declaration of independence. He then won a seat in the Constituent Assembly but fell out with the new emperor. When Pedro I shut the assembly down in November 1823, Bonifácio was arrested and sent to France. In 1829 he came back, spent a short time as guardian of the young Pedro II, and died in 1838.
Political views
- He wanted the former Portuguese provinces to stay joined as one empire, ruled by Pedro I under a constitution.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- A paper he prepared for the 1823 assembly asked for the slave trade to stop at once and for enslaved people to be freed gradually.Source: pt.wikisource.org
- He argued that a free and lasting constitution could not work in a land with so many enslaved people.Source: pt.wikisource.org
- He warned that farming built on slave labor was wiping out Brazil's forests, and he urged that they be kept for later generations.Source: pt.wikisource.org
- He suggested moving the capital inland, to house the court, the legislature and the high courts.Source: pt.wikisource.org
- He drew up plans to 'civilize' Indigenous peoples through peaceful missions, schools and settlement in the wider society.Source: pt.wikisource.org
- He promoted public schooling and scientific knowledge as the base of the new nation.Source: pt.wikisource.org
- In 1822, as minister, he ordered rivals he suspected of conspiracy to be deported and started a court inquiry against them.Source: pt.wikisource.org
Legacy
Brazilians honor Bonifácio as the Patriarch of Independence, the man who kept the new country in one piece instead of several republics. Admirers praise his early antislavery arguments, his idea of an inland capital that later became Brasília, and his scientific career. Critics note that nobody acted on his antislavery paper for decades. They add that his plan for a 'homogeneous nation' expected Indigenous and African-descended people to give up their own cultures, and that as minister he went after political rivals. Historians add that independence depended on a bargain with big landowners, and that bargain kept slavery alive.
In their own 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.”