Augusto Ivan de Freitas Pinheiro and Eliane Canedo
Research and contributions: Cristiane Titoneli
Valongo, market of the enslaved
The Cais do Valongo quay was the port of entry through which four million enslaved Africans arrived in Brazil between 177911 and 1831, when it was shut down in the first attempt to ban the transatlantic slave trade. Half a million slaves were shipped to Brazil and offloaded at this quay from 1811 to 1831, when the slave trade was forced into clandestine operations.
During the late XVIII, the Caminho do Valongo track (1760) appeared, running between the Morros da Conceição and Livramento hills, and on to the Enseada da Gamboa cove. The names of this district (Saúde) and hill (Livramento) were cruelly ironic, as one means ‘health’ and the other ‘freedom’; the lengthy existence of both these places in the Rio landscape still today scars the social, economic and cultural history of Brazil.
The Valongo quay was to become better known and even busier during the XVIII century, when the Viceroy – at that time, the Marquess do Lavradio – was shocked “by the dreadful custom of black people entering the city along its public thoroughfares as soon as they disembark in the port, coming from the coasts of Africa, not only carrying countless diseases, but also naked.”12 In 1774, he ordered the transfer of the wharf (completed in 1779) from the Praia do Peixe beach (today the Praça XV plaza) to this more remote location in the bay, which became the port of arrival for enslaved people shipped over from Africa.
Shortly before this, a decision was taken in 1722 on transferring the slave cemetery from the foot of the Morro do Castelo hill to the plot of land behind the hospital run by the Irmandade da Misericórdia brotherhood. Also at the initiative of the Marquess do Lavradio, the Cemitério dos Pretos Novos cemetery was established in the Largo de Santa Rita square, close to the barracoons where slaves were kept before they were sold, in the Largo do Depósito (today the Largo dos Estivadores square).
Later still, the cemetery and barracoons were transferred to the area around what is today the Rua Pedro Ernesto, in the Gamboa district. Strategically selected, this location was close to the port where slave ships docked, making it easier to bury new arrivals. All of them were weakened by the conditions under which they were shipped, together with illnesses they already had and contagious diseases that they caught. This cemetery remained unchanged until September 1850, when the slave trade was forbidden in Brazil through the Eusébio de Queiroz Act.
Today covered by buildings, countless skeletons and other burial relics were found during recent construction work in this area. However, the old cemetery had long lost its characteristics, and was not ranked as an archaeological site, in contrast to the Cais do Valongo quay, which was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site on July 9, 2017.
Commissioned by the City Chamber, the Cais da Imperatriz quay was built on the site of the old Cais do Valongo quay. It was named in honor of Brazil’s new Empress – Princess Teresa Cristina de Bourbon of the Two Sicilies – who travelled from Europe to marry Emperor Pedro II in 1843. Designed by architect Grandjean de Montigny, who arrived in Rio with the French Mission (1816), this project built a new wharf over the old quay, which vanished over time, buried under rocks and landfill. Not merely rebuilding the quay, long stigmatised by traffic in enslaved Africans, his design also endowed it with a necessary new appearance.
The architect used “well-chiselled granite stones in assorted sizes, forming the sidewall, with the rest of the paving consisting of cobblestones.” Above the wall was a balustrade adorned with four sculptures representing ancient Greek and Roman divinities: Minerva, Mercury, Ceres and Mars. Carved from Carrara marble, these statues were transferred to the Jardins do Valongo gardens early in the XX century, and then more recently (in 2000) to the Palácio da Cidade, the mansion in Botafogo that serves as the ceremonial seat of the municipal government.
Plaster copies of these statues are still today at their original locations. Flanking the entrance to the pier are two sculpted dolphins, symbols of the Guanabara Bay.13
Today, countless researchers are devoting their time to retrieving the history of half a million to a million captives that passed through this area between 1811 and 1861, shipped over to work in mines and on sugarcane plantations, followed by coffee plantations during the XIX century. This continued until the transatlantic slave traffic ceased in 1831, and slavery was finally abolished in Brazil in 1888.
During the 1870s, a grooved granite column was raised in what was then known as the Praça Municipal square, consisting of 91 round stone slabs on a granite pedestal, set on three steps. A rectangular tank and four taps were fitted to this column. With a Corinthian capital, it was topped by an armillary sphere with the three arrows (symbolizing the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of Rio de Janeiro) that feature on the city’s coat of arms. Celebrating the arrival of the future Empress of Brazil, this commemorative landmark was inaugurated on December 2, 1872. It still remains in place today, although the tank and taps that were part of its original design have been removed.