Joaquim Nabuco

Joaquim Nabuco combined abolitionist politics, historical writing, and diplomacy. Born in Recife in 1849, he studied law and entered Parliament as a representative of Pernambuco. His speeches, organizing, and 1883 book O Abolicionismo made him a leading public advocate of ending slavery. After abolition and the fall of the monarchy, he retained his monarchist convictions and withdrew from electoral politics. ¹

During that withdrawal he wrote Um Estadista do Império, a study of his father and imperial political life, and the memoir Minha formação. He helped establish the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He later returned to state service on the British Guiana boundary question and as minister in London, before becoming Brazil’s first ambassador to the United States in 1905. ¹

Nabuco made Pan-American diplomacy a central part of his Washington work. He helped arrange Secretary of State Elihu Root’s visit to Brazil in 1906 and was unanimously chosen president of the Third International American Conference in Rio de Janeiro. The conference addressed arbitration, legal codification, commercial cooperation, and the organization of the Bureau of the American Republics. ^{2, 3}

He also presented Brazilian history and literature to American university audiences. His 1908–09 lecture series covered Camões and the development of Brazilian and American civilization, beginning at Yale and extending to six universities. He died at his Washington post in January 1910; the United States provided naval honors and transport for his remains to Brazil. ^{2, 4, 5}