The 1877-1879 drought in imperial brazil: From senator pompeu to andré rebouças: Teachings on workers and the market

Abstract

In the 1870s, the Brazilian Empire sanctioned the Free Womb Law (1871) and a set into motion a series of modernizing reforms. Amid the crisis of slavery and the drought and famine of 1877-1879, landowners and slaveholders, ministers, provincial presidents, and representatives of technical knowledge forged plans to utilize the “free labor” provided by migrants, which showed clear leanings toward the peasant economy. During the first year of the drought, the engineer and abolitionist André Rebouças wrote and published a series of articles comparing famine-stricken Ceará with British India, seeking a model of governance to be followed in Brazil.