Ibicaba uprising

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Henrique Manzo, Ibicaba Estate , Limeira, 1876, oil on canvas, Museu Paulista of the University of São Paulo

The Ibicaba uprising (also called the uprising of the Parceristas or the Ibicaba revolt ) was the uprising of Swiss and German settlers on the Ibicaba farm in Limeira (Brazil) in 1856 against the exploitation by the Brazilian landlords using the Parceria system (also known as partnership System or half-lease system).

background

In the 19th century, slave labor was increasingly restricted, particularly after the adoption of the Aberdeen Bill , an English law that prohibited the sea transport of slaves for trade and whose sanction provided for the seizure of ships that violated the law. In Brazil, after a period of resistance, the law had consequences: the procurement of slaves became more difficult and expensive. New measures were therefore required to keep production on the farms going.

Free workers, preferably Europeans, therefore became attractive to Brazilian landowners. Senator Nicolau Vergueiro needed a new system that offered him an alternative to slave labor. He designed the so-called parceria system. Between 1847 and 1857, Vergueiro placed around 180 families from different European regions as colonists on Brazilian estates, thanks in part to intensive propaganda in Europe. According to the parceria contract, the estate company subsidized travel expenses (sea and land routes in Brazil), the provision of food, tools, building materials at 6 percent annual interest and credited the colonist with half of the sales proceeds from the coffee harvest, which enabled the colonist to pay off his debt . What at first glance looks like a partnership (Portuguese: parceria : 'partnership') relationship turned out to be a gag in reality.

Accustomed to the exploitation of slave labor, the Brazilian landlords reproduced authoritarian behavior towards their farm workers and tried to get as much out of them as possible in a manner resembling slavery. After landing in Santos, individual groups of colonists were held in the slave markets until they had been divided up among the interested landowners and sold. In addition, the arduous journey from Santos to the farm was billed to the colonist at high prices. Each member of a so-called contract family (this often also included “affiliates” such as single women, the elderly, the disabled) was responsible for the costs of the entire family plus interest. The family was forced to work many years to pay off the debt. The landlord who hired the settlers also sold them groceries at inflated prices, which resulted in them being trapped in a system that drove the settler family into ever greater debts with the landlord. Instead of becoming independent, families have in many cases become more dependent on their employers.

Painting from the Museu Paulista da USP
Henrique Manzo, Ibicaba Estate Coffee Plantation , 1850, oil on canvas, owned by the Museu Paulista of the University of São Paulo

Tensions

In the face of this exploitation, the immigrants of Senator Vergueiros' flagship estate, the Ibicaba estate, led by Thomas Davatz , a Swiss teacher, revolted . Seduced by the massive recruitment, he had previously awakened in good faith in Europe the desire to become small or medium-sized landowners.

Preparations

Davatz bundled the complaints of his colony, recorded his observations in writing and tried to send his reports to the competent authorities in Rio de Janeiro and Switzerland. Hoping for support, Davatz entrusted the colonists 'complaints to the landlords' Swiss family doctor. The latter revealed the content and author of the complaints to the powerful squire. This was followed by confrontations, harassment and threats. Davatz managed to get a letter past the post office censorship, which was risky, since the Vergueiros family took care of the post and censored the entire province. The letter arrived in Switzerland and had the effect that the cantons, from which most of the colonists and especially the colonists who had moved to São Paulo, decided to conduct an on-site investigation. To do this, they use the Zurich-based Jakob Christian Heusser . He was supposed to visit the colonies of the Vergueiro family and other parceria colonies in the highlands.

Open uprising

The news of the upcoming investigation by Heusser caused a stir among the manors and the colonists. The Swiss dared to openly revolt in December 1856. After Davatz was summoned to the manor house, many colonists feared for the physical integrity of their leader because of violent exchanges. So they hurried to the mansion armed with tools and a few with rifles.

Davatz managed to calm the angry colonists and send them home. But the landlords and salaried directors, for whom the slave revolts were not unknown, did everything they could to give Heusser the impression of harmony and normalcy. The colonists refused to confirm this picture for their part.

Your criticism related to:

  • the commission fees
  • the unjust conversion of home debts into the Brazilian currency, which was even used twice, although the home debts had to be transferred in Swiss francs anyway
  • the excessive prices (world market prices) for food purchased on the coffee plantation and for equipment without knowledge of the prices of the purchased goods until the first annual statement
  • the condition of many houses and the one-time down payment and the following rental costs
  • the bribery of Swiss / German sub-directors who wrote embellished reports about Ibicaba
  • no regular school lessons, no possibility to claim Protestant sacraments (marriage, baptism)
  • In spite of the annual lump sum paid for medical treatment, the lack of opportunities to consult a doctor
  • the translated conversion of the harvest of 3 alqueiras (measure of volume) picked coffees into 1 arroba (measure of weight, almost 15 kg) of peeled coffee

Effects

Firstly, Heusser's visit caused Davatz to return to Switzerland with his family, on the one hand for security reasons, on the other hand out of concern that he might continue to incite the colonists against the gentlemen. Second, he documented the often hopeless financial situation of the colonist families and the dishonest practices of the landlords and the Vergueiro & Cia company.

The colonists' hopes that their uprising would meet with great echo and force the Brazilian Empire to review labor relations initially failed. For the time being, there were no individual changes in Ibicaba with regard to the immediate quality of life of the colonists or with regard to property rights. Their situation even got worse in the following years. Overall, however, the uprising caused a broad political movement to regulate work on the farms by law.

The uprising also had an international impact. At the end of 1857, the Swiss President addressed a note to his Imperial Majesty's Minister, the Viscount de Maranguape. Prussia forbade the emigration of workers to Brazil. In 1860, Switzerland commissioned Johann Jakob von Tschudi as a special envoy to analyze the situation of the settlers. In fact, he was able to visit many parceria colonies (including Espíritu Santo), but never got access to the Vergueiros, Ibicaba and Angelica colonies. The leader of the uprising, Thomas Davatz, had published the story of the revolt in his report The Treatment of Settlers in the Province of St. Paulo in Brazil and Their Uprising Against the Oppressors on His Return to Europe; his report appeared in 1858.

In his report Tschudi shows little understanding for the lot of the parceria colonists.

“The improvements achieved did not so much help the colonists, but rather changed the basis for future colonization. Particularly noteworthy is the consular convention that Tschudi concluded with the Brazilian government. He also regulated inheritance issues by contract. In future, inheritances should be paid out to heirs in the other country. Tschudi's influence in the introduction of the civil status registers, which took place a few years after his mission, is difficult to assess. "

Tschudi also managed to clean up the accounts of colonists (with the exception of those of the colonists of Ibicaba and Angelica, to which he had no access), unless they had already been corrected during Heusser's visit. In addition, Tschudi initiated a lawsuit to obtain the repayments owed to the Swiss municipalities against the company Vergueiro & Cia, which the company was able to evade due to bankruptcy. Only after the Swiss communities had issued deeds of donation in favor of the colonists, the colonists of Ibicaba and Angelika could leave the colony. "The majority of them, so Raffard reported in 1868, had become small owners: 'Small owners in favorable circumstances, satisfied and in no way persecuted or harassed by Vergueiro.'"

With the reports by Davatz, Heusser and Tschudi, the euphoria about emigration to Brazil died down.

In Brazil, Davatz's report was published in Portuguese in 1951, translated and provided with a highly regarded foreword by Sergio Buarque de Holanda. As early as 1933, Mário de Andrade had included the report in a collection of the twenty fundamental works on Brazil.

The emigration of Swiss under the leadership of Thomas Davatz was edited literarily by Eveline Hasler . Her historical novel was published in 1985 under the title Ibicaba. The paradise in the mind published.

Individual notes

  1. Xico Graziano: Colonos suíços. In: EcoD. July 11, 2012, Retrieved December 16, 2019 (Brazilian Portuguese).
  2. ^ Antonio Gasparetto Junior: Revolta de Ibicaba. In: InfoEscola. UOL Educação, accessed December 16, 2019 (Brazilian Portuguese).
  3. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Exploited in Paradise. Swiss nationals as workers on Brazilian coffee plantations, 1852–1888. In: Eva Dietrich, Roman Rossfeld and Béatrice Ziegler (eds.): The dream of happiness. Swiss emigration to Brazilian coffee plantations 1852–1888. Accompanying publication to the exhibition of the same name at the Johann Jacobs Museum, collection on the cultural history of coffee. Zurich, December 1, 2002 - April 27, 2003. here + now, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte, Baden 2003, ISBN 3-906419-61-4 , p. 49 .
  4. Sylvester Davatz: Thomas Davatz. Bitter coffee - a Graubünden teacher in Brazil . In: Eva Dietrich, Roman Rossfeld and Béatrice Ziegler (eds.): The dream of happiness. Swiss emigration to Brazilian coffee plantations 1852–1888 . Accompanying publication to the exhibition of the same name at the Johann Jacobs Museum, Collection on the Cultural History of Coffee, Zurich, December 1, 2002 to April 7, 2003. hier + now, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte, Baden 2003, ISBN 3-906419-61-4 , p. 48 .
  5. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Swiss instead of slaves. Swiss emigrants in the coffee plantations of São Paulo (1852–1866) (= Rudolf von Albertini and Heinz Gollwitzer [Hrsg.]: Contributions to Colonial and Overseas History . No. 29 ). Steiner, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-515-04174-5 , pp. 283 .
  6. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Exploited in Paradise. Swiss nationals as workers on Brazilian coffee plantations, 1852–1888 . In: Eva Dietrich, Roman Rossfeld and Béatrice Ziegler (eds.): The dream of happiness. Swiss emigration to Brazilian coffee plantations 1852–1888 . Accompanying publication to the exhibition of the same name at the Johan Jacobs Museum, collection on the cultural history of coffee. hier + now, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte, Baden 2003, ISBN 3-906419-61-4 , p. 50 .
  7. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Exploited in Paradise. Swiss nationals as workers on Brazilian coffee plantations, 1852–1888 . In: Eva Dietrich, Roman Rossfeld and Béatrice Ziegler (eds.): The dream of happiness. Swiss emigration to Brazilian coffee plantations 1852–1888 . Accompanying publication to the exhibition of the same name at the Johann Jacobs Museum, Collection on the Cultural History of Coffee, Zurich, 1.12.2002–27.04.2003. hier + now, Verlag für Kunst und Geschichte, Baden 2003, ISBN 3-906419-61-4 , p. 50-51 .
  8. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Swiss instead of slaves. Swiss emigrants in the coffee plantations of São Paulo (1852–1866) (= Rudolf von Albertini and Heinz Gollwitzer [Hrsg.]: Contributions to Colonial and Overseas History . No. 29 ). Steiner-Verlag-Wiesbaden, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-515-04174-5 , pp. 171, 278-279 .
  9. a b Thomas Davatz: The treatment of the colonists in the province of St. Paulo in Brazil and their revolt against their oppressors . An emergency and help call to the authorities and philanthropists of the countries to which the colonists belonged. Portrayed by the former colonist Thomas Davatz. Leonh. Hitz, Chur 1858 ( wikisource.org [accessed June 20, 2020]).
  10. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Exploited in Paradise. Swiss nationals as workers on Brazilian coffee plantations, 1852–1888 . In: Eva Dietrich, Roman Rossfeld and Béatrice Ziegler (eds.): The dream of happiness. Swiss emigration to Brazilian coffee plantations 1852–1888 . Accompanying publication to the exhibition of the same name at the Johann Jacobs Museum, collection on the art history of coffee. hier + now, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte, Baden 2003, ISBN 3-906419-61-4 , p. 50-51 .
  11. ^ Paul-Emile Schazmann and Eugène Pittard: Johann Jakob Tschudi: researcher, doctor, diplomat. In: Yearbook of the Historical Association of the Canton of Glarus, 57th Historical Association of the Canton of Glarus, 1956, accessed on December 12, 2019 .
  12. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Swiss instead of slaves. Swiss emigrants in the coffee plantations of São Paulo (1852–1888) (= Rudolf von Albertini and Heinz Gollwitzer [Hrsg.]: Contributions to colonial and overseas history . No. 29 ). Steiner, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-515-04174-5 , pp. 320 .
  13. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Swiss instead of slaves. Swiss emigrants in the coffee plantations of São Paulo (1852–1888) (= Rudolf von Albertini and Heinz Gollwitzer [Hrsg.]: Contributions to Colonial and Overseas History . Volume 29 ). Steiner, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-515-04174-5 , pp. 324 .
  14. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Exploited in Paradise. Swiss nationals as workers on Brazilian coffee plantations, 1852–1888 . In: Eva Dietrich, Roman Rossfeld and Béatrice Ziegler (eds.): The dream of happiness. Swiss emigration to Brazilian coffee plantations 1852–1888 . Publication accompanying the exhibition of the same name at the Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich: 1.12.2002–27.04.2003. hier + now, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte, Baden 2003, ISBN 3-906419-61-4 , p. 53 .
  15. ^ Béatrice Ziegler: Swiss instead of slaves. Swiss emigrants in the coffee plantations of São Paulo (1852–1888) (= Rudolf von Albertini and Heinz Gollwitzer [Hrsg.]: Contributions to colonial and overseas history . No. 29 ). Steiner, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-515-04174-5 , pp. 335 .
  16. ^ Sergio Buarque de Holanda: Prefácio do Tradutor. In: Thomas Davatz: Memórias de um colono no Brasil . Livraria Martins Editora, 1951, p. 5-35 .
  17. Eveline Hasler: Ibicaba. Paradise in the mind . Nagel & Kimche, Zurich 1985.

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