The Redemptress Returns

As the Brazilian cruiser Almirante Barroso nosed past Sugar Loaf into Guanabara Bay last week, jet planes circled in the sky and shore batteries roared a royal 21-gun salute. On the cruiser's fantail, beneath the old imperial colors,* lay two oak coffins. They contained the remains of Princess Isabel of Braganza and her French consort, Gaston Count d'Eu. Brazil was honoring a national heroine, the princess who freed the slaves.

Isabel won the eternal devotion of her people on a sunny Sunday afternoon, May 13, 1888, when with a gold pen set with diamonds and emeralds she signed the shortest law in Brazil's history. It read: "As of this date, slavery in Brazil is declared extinct." It was a great triumph for the plump, fair-haired young princess, then acting as regent for her absent father, Emperor Dom Pedro II. In ten days, after she had reformed the cabinet, she pushed the emancipation bill through the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Commoners and courtiers joined in celebration, but the princess' ousted prime minister sardonically predicted: "She has freed a people, but she has lost a throne."

Isabel's humanitarian act, bitterly opposed by conservative coffee and sugar planters, soon brought on a disastrous economic crisis. Crops rotted in the fields as freed slaves abandoned the fazendas. Within a year the crowded cities faced famine, and the army deposed the royal family. Princess Isabel died at her husband's chateau in France in 1921.

In 1938, on the 50th anniversary of the "Golden Law," as the emancipation act became known, President Getulio Vargas decreed that the princess' remains should be brought home. The outbreak of World War II delayed the project, and almost 15 years passed before Vargas was back in office again. When the cruiser Barroso sailed for the British coronation ceremonies, it afforded an opportunity to bring the princess home in state.

Last week her bones lay in Rio's cathedral, where she was baptized and married. At the foot of her coffin lay the rose of solid gold awarded her by Pope Leo II after she had signed the Golden Law. For three days Brazilians of all colors, free men all, passed in mournful procession. Said the rector of the University of Brazil: "Greater than the empire she lost was her title, Isabel the Redemptress."

*In 1808 the Portuguese royal family, fleeing Napoleon's army, moved to Brazil, their biggest and richest colony. After the French had been driven out, King Joao returned to Portugal, leaving Crown Prince Pedro (Isabel's grandfather), as regent. Rising nationalism persuaded the prince to declare Brazil independent and himself its Emperor Dom Pedro in 1822.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.