Creole Society Research Articles

Variant Versions of Jose Bonifácio’s “Plan for the Civilization of the Brazilian Indians”

The leaders of the independence movements in the several Ibero-American areas frequently turned their attention to the problems of the aborigine. Usually the liberators’ concern was restricted to the pious hope that the Indian would be incorporated into creole society. Detailed programs to this end were not presented. The chief exception was José Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva’s Apontamentos para a civilização dos índios bravos do Império do Brasil. Mostly a drawing upon the experience of the past with a blending of the new ideas of the Enlightenment, the Apontamentos present little new. They are today important because, along with José Bonifácio’s more celebrated treatise on the Negro slave, they show an interest in social problems to which few of his contemporaries gave more than a passing glance. In the present century, they have become the guidepost for Brazil’s Indian program. As such they have frequently been hailed by Brazilians when the Indian problem is discussed.