Slavery in Brazil from the Spiritist perspective
Next Wednesday, 13th, it will be celebrated one more anniversary of the Golden Law, which on 13th May 1888 has officially finished slavery in Brazil.
What just a few people know is that 140 years ago, in 1869, in the same 13th May, nineteen years before the Golden Law being published, the confrere Antônio da Silva Neto, pioneer of the Spiritism in Brazil, release the pamphlet “The crown and the emancipation of the servant element”, focusing a theme that Allan Kardec had already examined in his first work – The Spirits’ Book, question 829.
Asked Kardec: – Are there human beings who are meant by nature to be the property of others?
The spirits answered: “Every instance of subjection of one human being to another is contrary the law of God. Slavery is an abuse of power and will disappear with progress little by little, as will all other abuses”
As we know, the implementation of slavery in Brazil coincided with the discovery of the country, that is, the slavery system started a few years after the arrival of Pedro Álvares Cabral to the Brazilian shore, analyzed this way in the chapter five of the book “Brasil, Coração do Mundo, Pátria do Evangelho”, by Humberto de Campos, psycho graphed by the medium Francisco Cândido Xavier:
“– Ismael (said Jesus to the spiritual protector of Brazil), calm down your inner world in order to accomplish the sacred duties trusted to you. You well know that the human beings have their personal responsibilities in the works they perform in their isolated and collective existences. But, if we cannot deny their freedom, we should not forget that there is the immortal institute of the divine justice, where each one will receive according to its actions.”
“I had determined that the Land of the Southern Cross would be populated by the humble souls of the planet, looking for the collaboration of suffering people of the African regions; nevertheless, for this co-operation to occur effectively without the attrition of the weapons, I took Portugal close to those suffering races, with no violence of any nature. The African collaboration should, thus, occur without any pernicious disturbance, in the chapter of my lovely determinations.”
“The European white man, however, is impaired by a damnable and deficient spiritual education. They want to render themselves to the fictitious pleasures of the senses, avoiding the hard work of agriculture, giving the pretext of the weather which is considered pernicious. They will have the freedom to humiliate their brothers, given the great law of the free-will, although limited, established by God to govern the life of all creatures, within the sacred imperatives of individual responsibilities; but, the ones that practice the nefarious commerce will suffer, equally, the same martyrdom, in the future, when they will be sold and flagellated under identical circumstances.”
“In their harmful thirst for enjoyment, the white men still do not realize that the evolution is processed by the practice of the good and that every determinism of Our Father must signalize itself by ‘love thy neighbor as yourself’”.
“They voluntarily ignore that the evil generate other evils with a long cortege of suffering. However, by tortuous lines, imposed by the free-will of the human creatures, I will operate with my mercy. I will place my light over the shadows, softening so painful cruelties. Proceed with your renounces in the favor of the Gospel and trust in the victory of the Divine Providence.”
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After registering the speech transcribed above in his book, Humberto de Campos (spirit) described the successive trials that affected Portugal and its people, who expiated the pain imposed to the Africans enslaved, and then observed: “The sons of Africa were humiliated and reduced in the soil where your renewing and sanctifying blesses flourished; the Lord, though, supported the heart of underdog, lighting the Calvary of their indescribable maladies with the gentle of His inexhaustible love. Through the tortuous lines of the men, Jesus performed his great and blessed objectives, because the black people of the African coasts were one of the cornerstones of the Gospel monument of the Heart of the World. Almost all material elements to the physical organization of Brazil were carried over their flagellate shoulders and touching lessons were born from their fountain of humility of their resigned and sad hearts, immunizing all the spirits against the excesses of the imperialism and of the unjustifiable pride of other nations of the planet, gifting the Brazilian soul with the most beautiful feelings of fraternity, tenderness and forgiveness.” (Brasil, Coração do Mundo, Pátria do Evangelho, chapter V.)
The episode shows us that the nations also pay collectively for their indiscipline, a subject known even before Jesus, as mentioned in the Old Testament when it reveals the explanation given by Jeremiah to his fellow countrymen who wanted to know why the Jews would become slaves of the Babylonians.
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