Introduction: The Purpose of the Project
The primary purpose of this project is to improve the viewers’ understanding of slavery and imprisonment in Brazil and their connections to the transatlantic. In this particular case, the focus will be slavery from West Africa to Brazil. When exploring the page, the viewer will be able to form their own opinions on freedom and its ultimate connection to movement.
For this project, it is essential to note that although freedom has a multitude of definitions, on the surface level, freedom is the ability to act without restriction. |
Theories of Freedom Shown Through Text
Orlando Patterson: Orlando Patterson, an activist and author, examined the idea of personal freedom. In his text, Freedom in the Making of Western Culture, Patterson writes, "Personal freedom, at its most elementary, gives a person the sense that one, on the one hand, is not being coerced· or restrained by an-other person in doing something desired and, on the other hand, the conviction that one can do as one pleases within the limits of other person's desire to do the same" (Patterson, 3). To the right is an image of Orlando Patterson from Harvard's sociology department.
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The concepts these two authors and activists have studied intertwine with the ideas seen throughout this project. For example, Davis studied American slavery and its transformation to imprisonment, an occurrence that has happened in Brazil as well. Patterson defined personal freedom, another key idea demonstrated throughout the project. We discuss how slaves and prisoners lack personal freedom despite being in two different eras.
How does slavery connect to imprisonment?
Brazil's prison system originated in slavery when colonists took their slaves to dungeons for any reason they wanted. Today, prisoners are mainly Afro-Brazilian, poor, sick, and indigenous people which relates to a continuation of some of its darkest times. Brazil has achieved abolishing slavery, but a large amount of Afro-Brazilians are still trapped in a cycle of violence and labor. After they are arrested they are deprived of a legal judicial process, required to live in overcrowded facilities, and are exposed to appalling conditions like torture and bad health practices. These types of struggles relate directly to Brazil's slave trade. Young Afro-Brazilians make up two-thirds of Brazil's current inmate population and have yet to become welcomed into society.
Keywords:
- Slave(s): "A person held in servitude as the chattel another" (Merriam Webster)
- Inmate(s): "A person(s) confined (as in a prison or hospital)" (Merriam Webster)
- Transatlantic Slave System: "Segment of the global slave trade that transported between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century" (Britannica)
Click the audio button to listen to the text!
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