African Voices from the 1835 Malê Revolt in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Dataset CreatorsAaron Spencer Fogleman, Northern Illinois UniversityFor a long time, scholars from many disciplines have recognized the importance of gathering and analyzing African voices in order to better study transatlantic slavery, but often they have lamented the paucity of sources that contain those voices. Although recent work makes it clear that hundreds of published accounts by African slave ship survivors are available, Brazil has been under-represented among these materials; this dataset and article is intended to address that problem.1 About 45 percent of the roughly 10.7 million enslaved Africans who disembarked from slave ships in the Atlantic World did so in Brazil. This dataset and the accompanying appendices present 157 additional published accounts from that country, namely those by Africans who participated in the 1835 Malê Revolt in Salvador, Bahia. Following the revolt, the police conducted more than two hundred hearings of enslaved and free Creoles and Africans in the city. In the late twentieth century, the Bahia state archives published the manuscripts in five volumes. Presenting transcriptions from those publications and translations into English of the testimony of each African (not Creoles) makes them available to more readers.2This work contributes to recent interest among scholars and the public to find and assess the voices of slave ship survivors throughout the Atlantic World, as well as interest in working with large quantities of biographical material on Africans in the era of transatlantic slavery. In addition to Five Hundred African Voices, this includes works by scholars in slavery studies3 and Paul Lovejoy’s Freedom Narratives project, which includes biographical information on Africans from both sides of the Atlantic.4 The African voices from the Malê Revolt presented here compliment the work of Gloria García Rodríguez, who in the late twentieth century published legal proceedings with African voices following slave revolts in Cuba from 1825 to 1866.5The Malê Revolt in Salvador–the largest urban slave revolt in the Americas–was a well-planned rebellion led by freed and enslaved African Muslims (Malês) that occurred during the night of January 24-25, 1835. Hundreds of Africans – not Creoles or mixed-race peoples – took to the streets in organized, armed groups, some even wearing warrior clothing from their West African homelands, to fight authorities, take the city, and then move into the surrounding countryside (Recôncavo) in order to end slavery there.Most rebels identified as of the Nagô nation (naçõe) and their proportion among the rebels was higher than it was among the total African population; other African ethnic groups were also involved, especially Ussá.6 Nagô was a term used in Brazil to denote Yorùbá people from what is now Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, while Ussá denoted Hausa people, including those from the Hausa Bakwai kingdoms in modern Nigeria and Niger. That is, people from these specific places began to identify as a “nation” within Brazil, and others viewed them in this way, as well. The term “Malê” added a religious component to this development, as it became an expression for Muslim Africans in Brazil, who hailed from more than one nation or specific African geographic origin.7Ethnic-religious identity played a crucial role in the causes, implementation, and aftermath of the revolt. Members of these and other ethnic groups had been taken in slave ships to Brazil, the large majority since 1800. Muslim religious leaders inspired, organized, and led the revolt, which was planned for January 25, the closest Sunday to the beginning of Ramadan, and a non-work day for enslaved people and others. The night before, rebels met in houses throughout the city to make final plans, but as word spread of their intent, authorities quickly mobilized and during the night crashed into the chief conspirators’ meeting place in the basement home of Manoel Calafate to confront them. This surprised the rebel leaders, touched off the rebellion sooner than planned, and initially put them on the defensive; nevertheless, the rebels responded in such large numbers that they controlled the streets of Salvador for many hours during the night. They did not commit acts of random violence, nor did they attack their owners and their families, as was often the case in slave revolts. Instead, they focused on military targets and raising support throughout the city. Ultimately, the rigorous response of the better-armed soldiers, police, and national guard suppressed the uprising by early the next morning.8Reprisals were swift and brutal. Violent official and unofficial vengeance campaigns followed against all Africans, including the innocent majority, in an attempt to eradicate their culture, which many blamed for causing the revolt. This included confiscation of religious and other objects. In addition to the nearly seventy Africans killed during the fighting, at the subsequent legal proceedings the courts sentenced more than five hundred to death, imprisonment, whippings, or deportation. After appeals, the courts lessened many sentences, and in the end only four rebels were executed. Authorities deported many convicted rebels to Lagos (modern Nigeria), which was in or near the homelands of many Nagô people, the predominant ethnic group in the rebellion.9The extensive hearings in Salvador following the revolt produced the voluminous police reports that are the source of the African voices provided here. Hundreds of Africans, Creoles, and others provided testimony that officials recorded in Portuguese. The original manuscripts are preserved in the Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (Public Archive of the State of Bahia) in Salvador. From 1968 to 1996 several archivists of the Historical Documentation Section of the Archive od Bahia published transcriptions of the trial records in five volumes of the Anais do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia.10The transcriptions of African voices presented in our collection are from the modern publications. After a thorough search of the five published volumes of police reports, we extracted the recorded testimony of those who were slave ship survivors. There may be slight differences between our transcriptions and what is found in the original documents. We followed the published transcriptions, making only slight additions in brackets to indicate punctuation and to correct words that were obviously typed incorrectly when correct spelling could easily be inferred. When the same word had different spellings, we followed the transcript from the Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia. Brazilian legal culture, especially in the mid-19th century, had a characteristic orality. The testimonies were not always written by legal officials; most of the time they were written by the police chief, judges, a justice of the peace, or clerks of the court who were literate and learned in the formality of court procedure. Although we are confident that the version presented here is very close to the original, we cannot rule out the possibility of human error or spelling changes by archivists in the published transcriptions. When in doubt, we have followed the published transcription as is and only made changes to words and punctuation in brackets to make the text easier to read.Under extreme pressure, with their own lives and those of others at stake, Africans providing testimony chose their words carefully. Often it is obvious that they presented interpretations of events that might alleviate their dire situation by not incriminating themselves, and in a few cases there is clearly little distortion because they did incriminate themselves. Also, although recording errors by officials no doubt happened, the effort that officials made at the time (due to the gravity of the event) and the volume of manuscripts produced suggest diligence. Nevertheless, the mediation involved in capturing these African voices was significant, and readers should consider its meaning when using this material. Furthermore, our English translations of the modern editions introduce still further mediation, although this is true for any edition of translated documents, and we provide the original Portuguese for those able to read it.112023-2024Portuguese, EnglishSalvador, Bahia, BrazilAfrica1835Criminal DocumentSecondary SourceAnais do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia, Devassa do Levante de Escravos ocorrido na Bahia em 1835, vol. 38 (1968).Anais do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia, Devassa do Levante de Escravos ocorrido na Bahia em 1835, vol. 40 (1971).Anais do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia, Devassa do Levante de Escravos ocorrido na Bahia em 1835, vol. 50 (1992).Anais do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia, Devassa do Levante de Escravos ocorrido na Bahia em 1835, vol. 53 (1996).Anais do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia, Devassa do Levante de Escravos ocorrido na Bahia em 1835, vol. 54 (1996).The collection, processing, and presentation of the African voices from the 1835 Malê Revolt in Salvador are the result of the efforts of a number of people. Larissa Mundim completed the tedious and important work of combing through all published volumes of the police reports to find African voices according to the standards set out in the parent project to this effort, Five Hundred African Voices. Alex Lundberg translated those African voices into English.12 By an “African voice” we refer to recorded first-hand testimony of an African slave ship survivor that was eventually published. Other Africans (including those who might have reached Brazil in ways that did not involve their enslavement), Africans whose actions are described by others but who did not provide testimony themselves, Africans who provided accounts that still have not been published, and Creoles are excluded.13The dataset allows one to search and find individuals with common features. It includes the following twenty-one fields: NumberFirst NameFirst Middle NameSecond Middle NameLast NameAfrican NameAfrican NationAfrican HomelandPerson’s StatusSexAgeOccupationOwner or Former OwnerDocument TypeEventPlace NeighborhoodPlace CityPlace ProvincePlace CountryDateReferenceThe dataset was constructed by copying and pasting information regarding these fields from the biographical catalog described below.Note that the numbering system in this dataset includes the 500AV prefix (referring to Five Hundred African Voices), followed by the number in this collection of African Voices from the 1835 Malê Revolt. Thus the tenth individual in this collection is designated as 500AV510, referring to a man named Jozé. After finding one or more individuals of interest, one could follow the link to the full text of each account.The dataset allows for assessment of Africans and African voices in the rebellion in a number of ways. 74 of the 157 Africans were enslaved at the time of their hearing, 44 were freed (formerly enslaved), and the status in this respect of 6 at the time (1835) is unclear. In only a few cases did officials record the specific homeland of the African providing testimony, but in almost all cases they recorded their nação/nation. With this information users can acquire some sense of African origins, and they can learn a lot more about how individuals identified and lived with each other in Salvador. Scholars have long known that people who identified as Nagô were the most common group involved in the rebellion, and, in fact, 83 of the 157 African testimonies came from members of this group. As with just about anyone, occupation was important in the urban slavery setting of Salvador, and one could use this dataset to show the relationship of certain kinds of work to rebellion, for example. Also, 23 of the 157 Africans providing testimony were women – a minority, yet enough to allow gender analysis of participation in the rebellion (all references and indications in reference to gender or “sex” in the published volumes were binary). Information on neighborhoods in Salvador of the Africans providing testimony is usually quite detailed, often naming the street where they lived, which allows one to investigate the urban geography of rebellion – even more than João José Reis did in his seminal work, Slave Rebellion in Brazil.Published alongside the dataset are a number of appendices with material that allows readers to work with these African voices in various ways. Appendix A contains all 157 accounts in the original Portuguese and English translation. Readers might find it useful to read through the entire document in order to gain a sense of what the Africans were saying altogether. Authorities listened to and recorded African testimony in groups during long sessions, so the order of appearance in this document is often important. In some cases accused Africans were present as others testified against them, and in many cases those testifying responded to something previously said by an African witness. Further, the testimony of others (especially those speaking at the same session) provides valuable context to that of any one African; entries include testimony from men and women who were at the core of the rebellion.14Appendix B contains a short biography for each of the 157 Africans who testified before the police regarding the revolt. Following the style of Five Hundred African Voices, it includes URLs and QR code links to the full primary account of each in both Portuguese and English. Under the date the account was produced, each catalog entry includes the name of the person whose account was recorded (e.g. 536.1 Bonifácio da Silva Cunha), followed by approximations of their life spans and variant names (cognomens), with African names listed first. Much of this information is unknown in many cases, especially African names and birth and death dates, but we do provide what we have. Full bibliographic citations appear for each entry, followed by the URLs and QRs code linking readers to the full text of each account via the Internet. The second part of each catalog entry is the biographical summary, preceded by a pilcrow (¶). This brief overview is intended to quickly inform readers on important features of that person’s life, including their specific African origins, family circumstances, religion, ethnicity or language, how and when they were taken into the transatlantic slave trade, destinations, later family life, skills or occupations, circumstances of emancipation, further movements, death, and so forth. In many cases relatively little of this information is known. At the end of the paragraph we provide a secondary source relevant to the African, in this case Reis’s monograph on the 1835 Malê Revolt in Salvador.We hope that these 157 African voices from the Malê Revolt allow readers to explore many aspects of transatlantic slavery in Salvador, Brazil, and throughout the Atlantic World using greater African perspectives than other documents afford. Also included are a short bibliography (Appendix C) and a set of relevant maps (Appendix D) and images (Appendix E) that provide additional insight into the worlds in which they lived. The possibilities for research and pedagogy continue to increase, as more African voices become available to more people, and now we have much greater representation of Africans taken on slave ships to Brazil. It is our view that scholars must include such African perspectives in their work in order to more fully recognize the history, culture, sufferings, and contributions of Africans in Atlantic history.Dataset Repository: Harvard Dataverse, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VYH1W2Enslaved.org Linked Data Representation: https://enslaved.org/visualizedata?type=Dashboard&field=po&proj=500+african+voicesCenter for Latino and Latin American Studies, Northern Illinois UniversityHistory Department, Northern Illinois UniversityCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Northern Illinois UniversityResearch and Artistry Fund, Northern Illinois University