On May 16, 1871, Brazilian authorities violently suppressed an Afro-Brazilian revolt in the province of Bahia, where resistance to slavery and racial oppression had been persistent for decades. Bahia had long been a center of African cultural retention and rebellion, from the Malê Revolt in 1835 to ongoing unrest. The 1871 uprising involved free and enslaved Blacks protesting labor exploitation and police brutality. Though the rebellion was short-lived, it influenced debates over slavery, which Brazil would abolish in 1888. The suppression also highlighted the state’s violent response to Black assertion, even among the free population. This event foreshadowed the struggles Afro-Brazilians would face in post-emancipation society.
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