Did Brazil's 'Independence Or Death !' I Stay?

“Independence or death!” “I stay.” “I say to the people that I am staying!” (Independence of Brazil) All three of these statements were made by Dom Pedro to the Brazilian masses as he attempted to free them from the incompetent hands of Portugal. Dom Pedro crowned himself emperor of Brazil with an almost Napoleon-like aire, however that was the most radical aspect of this revolution. Brazil’s run for independence was not a “full-scale assault on dependency,” as Gordon Wood describes, but four generations of a Royal, Portuguese family who decided that Portugal was a colony of Brazil, not the other way around. When Brazil gained independence, the common people were still on the bottom, the landholding elite were still on the top, and the slaves still worked the fields just as they had during the colonial era. Liberty was achieved without the expensive, drawn-out wars that many other countries in Latin America experienced (Independence of Brazil). After the Brazilians gained their
His main motivation curbed complete freedom; Brazil would not be under Portugal’s thumb who was under Britain’s thumb. The British were proponents of abolishment and if Brazil stayed a colony, their slavery system would have been cut off far sooner. But like many nations that depended on agriculture for their economy, Brazil depended heavily on slave population. From the beginning of Brazil’s existence to 300 years later, African slaves were the main workforce. They worked the coffee and sugar plantations as well as various other ranches that dappled the nation. This is a stark contrast to the Southern United States, where some or most of the slaves were the workers, Brazil’s slaves, on the other hand, were all of the workers in the urban and rural areas throughout the entire country