"This spot is notorious from having been, for a long time, the residence of some runaway slaves, who, by cultivating a little ground near the top, contrived to eke out a subsistence, At length they were discovered, and a party of soldiers being sent, the whole were seized with the exception of one old woman, who, sooner than again be led into slavery, dashed herself to pieces from the summit of the mountain" -Charles Darwin, Journal of Researches (Voyage of the Beagle)
Darwin is recounting a story of slavery in Brazil, which was much larger in scope and went on much longer than slavery in the United States. Darwin abhorred slavery and his uncle Josiah Wedgewood was a financier of the abolitionist movement.
"This spot is notorious from having been, for a long time, the residence of some runaway slaves, who, by cultivating a little ground near the top, contrived to eke out a subsistence, At length they were discovered, and a party of soldiers being sent, the whole were seized with the exception of one old woman, who, sooner than again be led into slavery, dashed herself to pieces from the summit of the mountain" -Charles Darwin, Journal of Researches (Voyage of the Beagle)
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