The colored etching presented above is of the great square in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The time period being 1823 when slavery was still legal is very evident on the lower right portion of the painting where we see a row of chained slaves and what appears to be a female slave washing clothes at a public tub. Aside from the slaves and few other characters in the background, we are shown just how vast and opulent the palace is with the church right alongside, being the tallest building with the cross on top as a way of showing respect to the Christian religion
A notable takeaway from the painting is how relatively quiet and peaceful the scene is, especially considering this is shortly after Brazil had declared independence from Portugal on September 7th, 1822. While skirmishes with the Portuguese empire persist for a few more years after, Brazil is relatively left intact from its declaration of independence. An anomaly compared to most of Latin America during the same time period. Most countries that fought for independence from the Spanish empire faced a lot of damage in not only infrastructure, but in human death toll as well. Knowing how much destruction had taken place to the countries across the continent, it’s possible that Brazil and Portugal took a much less bloodless revolutionary war with most buildings and churches left intact to avoid the destruction Spain and its colonies took as damage (Wood 28).
One interesting fact about the artist himself, John Mawe is credited as the first foreigner in Brazil to be granted access a license to visit the rich mining areas of Minas Gerals. There he was able to witness firsthand and describe in detail about the diamond and gold mines of Brazil.
1: Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations, edited by James A. Wood, and Anna Rose Alexander, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/baruch/detail.action?docID=5743856.