Punishment in Paradise: Race, Slavery, Human Rights, and a Nineteenth-Century Brazilian Penal Colony

352 Pages·2015·1.871 MB·English

by  Peter M. Beattie

Punishment in Paradise
•
•
Peter M. Beattie
•• ••
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••
PUNISHMENT IN PARADISE
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••
Race, Slavery,
Human Rights, and a
Nineteenth-Century
Brazilian
Penal Colony
Duke University Press Durham and London 2015
© 2015 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞
Designed by Heather Hensley
Typeset in Minion Pro by Westchester Publishing Services
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Beattie, Peter M., 1963–
Punishment in paradise : race, slavery, human rights, and a
nineteenth- century Brazilian penal colony / Peter M. Beattie.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5816- 9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5830- 5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn 978- 0- 8223- 7589- 0 (e-book)
1. Prisons— Brazil—Fernando de Noronha— History—19th
century. 2. Prisoners— Brazil—Fernando de Noronha.
3. Fernando de Noronha (Brazil)— History—19th century.
i. Title.
hv9594.f47b43 2015
365'.34—dc23 2014034850
Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges the support
of Michigan State University, Department of History, which
provided funds toward the publication of this book.
Cover art: Fernando de Noronha Island, 2008. Photo by Bruno
Barbey. © Bruno Barbey / Magnum Photos.
I dedicate this book to my wife,
erica melissa windler beattie
And to my son,
aodhan windler beattie
Th e two souls most responsible
for my regeneration.

Th e Idée Fixe
So, long live history, voluble history,
which is good at anything, and,
getting back to the idée fi xe, let me
say that it’s what produces strong men
and mad men. A mobile idea, vague
or changeable, is what produces a
Claudius— according to the formula
of Suetonius.
A Project
Th e need to regenerate him [Quincas
Borba], get him back to working and
having respect for his person was fi lling
my heart. I [Brás Cubas] was starting to
get a comfortable feeling, one of uplift ,
of admiration for myself.
joaquim maria machado de assis, the
posthumous memoirs of brás cubas

Contents
xi ac know ledg ments
1 introduction: Fernando de Noronha Island:
Foil, Paradox, Paradise, or Inferno?
12 1. Getting to Know “Fernando”
23 2. “Th e Key to the Americas”?
48 3. Fernando de Noronha’s “Dark Twins”:
Licit and Illicit Commerce
75 4. “Brothers of the Peak”: Prosopography of a
Penal Community
101 5. Th e Jealous Institution and Brazilian Penology
124 6. “A Stench in the Nostrils of God”? Th e Material
and Social Life of Exile
148 7. Crime, Confl ict, Corruption, and Cooperation
on an Atlantic Frontier
177 8. Th e Treatment and Categorization of Slave Convicts
in a Penal Archipelago
200 9. Of Captivity and Incarceration: Human Rights Reform
in Atlantic Perspective
227 conclusion: Punishment in Paradise Foiled Again
241 appendix: Statistical Tables
259 abbreviations
263 notes
301 bibliography
327 index