We prepared and selected 10 exercises about slavery in Brazil for you to prepare for your tests, ENEM and entrance exams.
Good studies!
Easy level
Exercise 01
About the enslavement process in Brazil, mark the correct alternative:
a) The enslaved peoples in Brazil were protected by law in relation to physical punishment. Therefore, this inhumane practice did not happen to them.
b) The enslaved peoples were, since the beginning of colonization, exclusively men coming from the African continent.
c) The Brazilian indigenous peoples were never enslaved, as the Jesuit priests saw them as individuals who needed to be catechized.
d) The end of slavery in Brazil happened in the first years of colonization, due to the high cost that farm owners had to keep a slave.
e) The enslavement of people happened, for the most part, with people coming from the African continent, although the indigenous people also served as slave labor.
Africans were the most enslaved peoples in Brazil, because the buying and selling of these peoples was profitable for Portugal. However, indigenous people were also enslaved, especially in the early years of colonization.
Exercise 02
The law that legally ended slavery in Brazil was called:
a) Law of Sexagenarians.
b) Bill Aberdeen Act.
c) Golden Law.
d) Law of the Free Womb.
e) Eusébio de Queirós Law.
The Lei Áurea, of 1888, legally ended the slavery of people in Brazil.
Exercise 03
Regarding slavery in Brazil, check the INCORRECT alternative:
a) The place where enslaved people lived on farms was called slave quarters.
b) In the process of Brazilian slavery, the enslaved was considered a private property of his master.
c) Letter of manumission was the name given to the document that an enslaved person received when he was considered free.
d) There was a friendly relationship between Jesuit priests and farmers during the colonial period.
e) It was common to practice physical punishment as a form of punishment for enslaved people.
Jesuit priests and farmers clashed frequently, because while the priests wanted to catechize the indigenous people, the farmers wanted to enslave them.
Exercise 04
“All the dwellings of runaway blacks, more than five, in a depopulated part, even if they do not have ranches raised and pestles are not found in it”
The above quote refers to:
a) Quilombos.
b) Senzalas.
c) Big houses.
d) Spaces for the trade of slaves.
e) None of the above.
The quilombos were spaces in the middle of the forests where enslaved people lived on the run after escaping from the large farms.
Middle level
Exercise 05
The resistance of African peoples during enslavement in Brazil is an aspect of extreme importance in the study of the history of slavery in the country. On this topic, mark what is correct:
a) Quilombos were spaces of refuge where Jesuit priests carried out catechization processes with enslaved people. For each enslaved person catechized, the Portuguese Crown paid a sum of gold to their master.
b) The process of enslavement in Brazil took place without the enslaved showing any kind of resistance. This explains why slavery lasted so long in the country.
c) In addition to escapes and revolts, the resistance of enslaved people against slavery also occurred through cultural and religious manifestations. In the context in which they lived, fighting to keep their customs and language alive, for example, was an act of resistance.
d) The abolitionist laws created in Brazil during the 19th century arose exclusively because of the European context. The development of mercantile activities in England is an example of this.
e) Considering Princess Isabel's action in the signing of the Lei Áurea, in 1888, it is possible to state that she should be considered the main heroine in the struggle of the Brazilian population against slavery.
Resistance did not just happen through escapes and rebellions. As enslaved people were forbidden to maintain their culture, practice their religiosity and customs, even if against the rules, were some of the various forms of resistance to the slave model.
Exercise 06
About the relationship between England and the end of slavery in Brazil, analyze the sentences and mark the correct alternative:
a) The English defended the maintenance of slavery in Brazil. As they were the great navigators, all ships loaded with slaves had to pay a fee to the British crown. Therefore, Brazilian slavery was favorable to these.
b) The English defended the maintenance of slavery in Brazil. The main reason was the agreements made between Brazil and Portugal from 1808, with the opening of Brazilian ports to friendly nations. Thus, the slave trade was profitable for England.
c) The English were against the maintenance of slavery in Brazil. That's because what was in their interest was the enslavement of Asian peoples, where they had colonies. Even proposing agreements with D. João VI for the use of Africans to be replaced, the change would not be advantageous for Portugal, which declined.
d) The English were against the maintenance of slavery in Brazil. Symbol of Enlightenment ideas, England was a defender of the individual rights of human beings and, therefore, opposed to any type of enslavement of people.
e) The English were against the maintenance of slavery in Brazil. Due to its industrialization process, slavery was not interesting for the British because, as he does not earn a salary, an enslaved person cannot consume and, consequently, cannot consume products English. Therefore, Brazilian slavery for England represented a smaller Brazilian consumer market able to buy its products.
The English mercantile model required a greater number of people to consume its products. Thus, for them, the end of slavery would be more interesting not for a humanitarian issue, but an economic one.
Exercise 07
In the 20th century, Brazil created some laws establishing the abolition of slavery. On this topic, mark the INCORRECT alternative:
a) The Eusébio de Queirós Law of 1850 prohibited the sale of enslaved people within the country. Therefore, from it, only individuals who were born on the farms and who were children of enslaved women could be enslaved. It would not be possible to trade people from one farm to another.
b) The Free Womb Law, of 1871, guaranteed freedom to the children of enslaved people born after its publication date.
c) The Sexagenarian Law, of 1885, guaranteed freedom for enslaved people aged 60 or more.
d) The Lei Áurea, of 1888, represented the legal end of slavery in Brazil. Signed by Princess Isabel, this law is the result of an entire resistance movement on the part of the population (in particular, enslaved and formerly enslaved) in favor of this objective.
e) The creation of the Lei Áurea did not represent the end of the struggle of the black population in Brazil. On the contrary, despite being free, the now ex-enslaved had to fight for their survival in a still racist context and with slavery practices. The effects of slavery remain until the present day in Brazilian society, being very visible in the various social markers pointed out in research.
The Eusébio de Queirós Law allowed the sale of enslaved people within the national territory. Commercialization between farms was indeed possible.
Exercise 08
About the conditions of slavery in Brazil, check the INCORRECT alternative:
a) After being captured on the African continent, men and women were brought to Brazil in the holds of ships, crossing the Atlantic Ocean and arriving here, where they would be sold and enslaved.
b) Physical punishment was common. These happened before all the other enslaved people, so that the punishment of one would serve as an example so that the others would not repeat the same "mistake".
c) Enslaved people were allowed to profess their faith, regardless of their religion. Therefore, the religiosity of the enslaved was respected within the farms, becoming a way for the masters to "appease" the moods of their captives and prevent rebellions.
d) Enslaved women were also sexually exploited, with the birth of children being the result of sexual abuse by free men being common.
e) Quilombos were places that housed slaves who managed to escape from their masters. They became a symbol of the resistance of the African people against the slave regime.
Enslaved people were forbidden to perform their religious rites.
Hard level
Exercise 09
(AND EITHER) West Africa is known for the dynamics of its female traders, characterized by expertise, autonomy and mobility. Their presence, attested by travelers and Portuguese missionaries who visited the coast from the 15th century onwards, is also included in the extensive documentation on the region. The literature is rich in references to great women such as street vendors, whose way of doing business, as well as autonomy and mobility, is so typical of the region.
HAVIK, P. Afro-Atlantic dynamics and asymmetries: female agency and changing representations in Guinea (19th and 20th centuries). In: PANTOJA, S. (Org.). Identities, memories and stories in African lands. Brasilia: LGE; Luanda: Nzila, 2006.
The author's approach to West African social life can be related to a striking feature of cities in slave-owning Brazil in the 18th and 19th centuries, which can be observed for the:
a) restriction on street trading by enslaved Africans and their descendants.
b) coexistence between free men and women, of different origins, in small businesses.
c) presence of black women in the street trade of various products and foodstuffs.
d) dissolution of the cultural habits brought from the continent of origin of the enslaved.
e) entry of Portuguese immigrants into activities related to small urban commerce.
Women had this commercial function in cities, selling products to their lords.
Exercise 10
(And either) Slavery will not be suppressed in Brazil by a servile war, much less by insurrections or local attacks. Nor should it be because of a civil war, as it was in the United States. It could disappear, perhaps, after a revolution, as happened in France, that revolution being the exclusive work of the free population. It is in Parliament and not on farms or quilombos in the interior, nor in the streets and squares of cities, that the cause of freedom will be won or lost.
NABUCO, J. abolitionism [1883]. Rio de Janeiro: New Frontier; São Paulo: Publifolha, 2000 (adapted).
In the text, Joaquim Nabuco defends a political project on how the end of slavery in Brazil should occur, in which:
a) It copied the Haitian model of black emancipation.
b) Encouraged the conquest of manumission through lawsuits.
c) He opted for the legalist path of liberation.
d) Prioritized the negotiation around indemnities to the masters.
e) He anticipated the paternalistic release of captives.
Joaquim Nabuco was a great defender of the freedom of enslaved people in Brazil
Keep studying:
- slavery in Brazil
- Exercise on Colonial Brazil
- Exercises on History of Brazil from ENEM
SOUZA, Thiago. 10 exercises on slavery in Brazil (with comments).All Matter, [n.d.]. Available in: https://www.todamateria.com.br/exercicios-escravidao-brasil/. Access at:
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