Miguel Maria Lisboa

Miguel Maria Lisboa, Baron of Japurá, was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1809 and studied at Edinburgh. His diplomatic career took him through Britain, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, New Granada, and Peru. He sent agricultural writings, plants, and seeds to Brazil’s Sociedade Auxiliadora da Indústria Nacional. ^{2, 3, 1}

In Washington during the American Civil War, Lisboa examined how the conflict would affect Brazil's slaveholding economy. He monitored tariffs on coffee and warned that emancipation in the United States would isolate the remaining slave societies of the Americas. His concern initially centered on protecting the imperial social order. ¹

Historian Alain El Youssef connects Lisboa’s reports to Brazil’s gradual emancipation debate. Pedro II recommended them to ministers, and Lisboa drafted a proposal in 1864 to free children born to enslaved mothers after a future date. It was not enacted as written. El Youssef places it within the process leading to the Free Womb Law of 1871. ¹

Lisboa also wrote about his travels. His Relação de uma viagem a Venezuela, Nova Granada e Equador appeared in 1866, recording observations from earlier missions. He later represented Brazil in Portugal and died in Lisbon in 1881. ²