In order to fully understand the slavery situation it is necessary to go back a number of decades in the history of the country. At the beginning of the 19th century there were perhaps two million of negro slaves in Brazil. From about that period the movement for the abolition of slaves began to make headway. Strong and influential men arose in a number of different states and advocated the gradual eradication of this practice, by freeing all children of slave mothers after a certain age had been reached. It was not, however, until 1830, and after much agitation, that the importation of slaves was made illegal; and for many years after this there was a large clandestine infiltration of blacks. The Emperor was at heart an abolitionist and favoured the movement as much as he dared. The law of 1830 proving ineffectual, in 1854 a vigorous statute was enacted suppressing the ingress of slaves and this was strenuously enforced. At this time the slaves numbered two million five hundred thousand, nearly forty per cent. of the population. The breaking out of the Paraguayan war checked the trend of the abolition movement, but at its close, in 1870, it sprang up again more strongly than ever. In the following year the so-called Rio Branco ordinance was passed, which declared that all children of slave mothers should be free after their majority, as this service should pay for their rearing and education. Proprietors were required to register all slaves. This concession did not satisfy a large element. In a few years a powerful party arose which demanded the immediate manumission of all slaves, and this party numbered among its adherents some of the strongest men in Brazil. Slavery was abolished in the states of Amazonas and Ceará. A further bill, passed by the national assembly, declared all slaves over the age of sixty years free, on condition that they served their masters for three more years, and established a scale of low redemption prices by which the slaves could purchase their freedom. Rio de Janeiro was the centre of the abolition movement, and São Paulo of the slave-holders’ strength. Many wealthy and influential slave-holders in the latter state voluntarily unshackled all their slaves for the sake of principle. Encouraged by the state of public opinion, thousands of slaves voluntarily left the estates, and the officials generally refused aid in securing their return. So rapidly did the number of those held in bondage decrease that, by 1887, there were only seven hundred and forty-three thousand slaves in the whole empire, a little more than one-fourth of the number a quarter of a century previous. When the Congress met in May, 1888, the speech from the throne announced that “the imperial programme was absolute, immediate and uncompensated emancipation.” A bill was introduced which contained the following two short articles: I. Slavery in Brazil is declared extinct. II. All acts to the contrary are revoked.