Black American Colonization in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

In the 1860s, when post-emancipation debates reached transnational significance, Brazil and the United States were the only two countries in the Americas where slavery was still legal. While Brazil was recognized as a place where “colour is no obstacle to advancement” (CHRISTIE, 1865, 78), the United States witnessed the emergence of the belief that “the races cannot live together in a state of freedom” (WEBB, 1853). Considering that context, the fortuitous encounter of a New York Times article from 1862 aroused my curiosity for it reported a project to transplant Afro-descendants from the United States to the Brazilian Amazon. Such a project remained virtually ignored by the Brazilian historiography, except for the book published by Nícia Vilela Luz in 1968, denouncing the American intentions to colonize the Amazon. Although the so-called “negro colonization” project never yielded an official proposition to the Brazilian government, it still deserves examination. I argue that, in the present context of global exchanges and migrations, this historical event gains new relevance. The intention of transferring an entire category of the population from one national territory to another raises questions about citizenship and national sovereignty. At the same time, it opens the opportunity for a transnational approach that can illuminate otherwise unseen aspects of migrations.