Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888, making it a very recent memory one Joao Candido Felisberto, a sailor whose parents were former slaves. And, well, it seems old habits die hard because the Brazillian navy in 1910 was a popular destination for men in poverty with nowhere else to go, and they were still in the habit of whipping their men into shape… with actual whips. So Joao conspired with his fellow sailors to stage a mutiny, killing several officers in the fight to control the navy’s most advanced warships. For four days they occupied the waters outside Rio de Janeiro, even firing on army forts, demanding torture be outlawed as a form of punishment. Congress is stumped, because if they fight these men either they embarrass themselves by proving these new ships aren’t as unsinkable as they claimed and send their investment to the bottom of the ocean, or they lose the fight and risk Rio getting bombarded. So they give in to their demands and promise them amnesty. And then arrest, torture, and kill most of them two weeks later.
Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888, making it a very recent memory one Joao Candido Felisberto, a sailor whose parents were former slaves. And, well, it seems old habits die hard because the Brazillian navy in 1910 was a popular destination for men in poverty with nowhere else to go, and they were still in the habit of whipping their men into shape… with actual whips. So Joao conspired with his fellow sailors to stage a mutiny, killing several officers in the fight to control the navy’s most advanced warships. For four days they occupied the waters outside Rio de Janeiro, even firing on army forts, demanding torture be outlawed as a form of punishment. Congress is stumped, because if they fight these men either they embarrass themselves by proving these new ships aren’t as unsinkable as they claimed and send their investment to the bottom of the ocean, or they lose the fight and risk Rio getting bombarded. So they give in to their demands and promise them amnesty. And then arrest, torture, and kill most of them two weeks later.
