Emiliano F.B. Mundrucu: Inter-American revolutionary and abolitionist (1791–1863)

This article explores transnational dialogues between peoples of color in Brazil, Spanish-speaking South America, Haiti, and North America on issues relating to revolution, abolitionism, diplomacy, and civil rights in the nineteenth century. By focusing on Emiliano Felipe Benício Mundrucu (1791–1863), a Brazilian pardo who traveled and lived in Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, and the United States, this paper discusses the unique socio-economic, racial, and political perspectives that educated, polyglot, and unusually well-traveled peoples of color brought to debates on abolition, civil rights, and broader hemispheric-wide questions of black identity in this period. It also explores their involvement in transnational revolutionary activity in the early nineteenth century, discussing how Mundrucu, along with other Brazilian secessionists, solicited the help of the young, radical republics of Haiti and Gran Colombia to challenge the Brazilian monarchy in Rio de Janeiro and establish a federalist republic in the north east of the country.