News

Owner of Former Plantation Lets Tourists 'Relive' Colonial Slavery

In the past, it was legal to own another human being and do with their lives as you please, including forcing them to work, harming them, or even trading them to others. Many countries allowed citizens to keep slaves. This are the grounds of Santa Eufrasia, a former slave plantation located just outside of Rio de Janeiro. Elisabeth Dolson, the modern day owner of the former plantation, has opened the building to tourists, showing visitors where slaves once worked and allowing them to feel the cruelty and hardship for themselves. Dolson wears clothing typical of Brazilian plantation owners and adopts the character of a plantation owner for show. In fact, she has even reportedly paid Afro-Brazilians to dress as slaves and serve coffee to guests. Not surprisingly, Brazilian authorities criticized the project for glorifying Brazil's history of slavery and forced her to stop mentioning slavery to advertise her plantation. Santa Eufrasia was erected in 1830, during the height of the Brazilian slave trade. It is estimated that nearly 5 million slaves were brought to Brazil between 1501 to 1866, about 40 percent of the total number of slaves brought to the Americas and more than any other Western country. Brazil was also the last country to abolish slavery in 1888, and Santa Eufrasia became unprofitable without slave labor. Elisabeth Dolson's direct descendant, Colonel Horacio Jose de Lemos, bought the plantation after abolishion and never used slave labor to run it. Although Dolson's idea to reopen the plantation as a tourist attraction certainly is original, it's no wonder that it has fired up a storm of controversy by forcing Brazilians to discuss a very uncomfortable part of their history.