Isabel Orleans-Bragança

This is a biography of Isabel Orleans-Bragança, daughter of the last emperor of Brazil. At a time when the voices of women went mostly unheard, Orleans-Bragança was a skilled and vocal politician. She was also a determined abolitionist, committed to peacefully ending slavery in the country that first introduced slavery to America.
Thrust into the political spotlight after the death of her two brothers and illness of her father, Orleans-Bragança became acting head of state just as revolution was sweeping the country. She soon found herself in a race to save the constitutional government and free the nation’s slaves before a coup d’etat ended her time in power.

James McMurtry Longo is a professor of education and chair of the Education Department at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, and author of six other books.

James McMurtry Longo
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 300
Bibliographic Info: 12 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3201-1
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Preface: Introduction to a Princess     1

1. Exiles Under the Southern Cross      7
2. “Swords from the Hands of a Woman”      10
3. “It Is Impossible to Rule Innocently”      20
4. “Schemes and Plans”      27
5. “Restless Intrigues”      32
6. “We Unfortunate Princesses”      37
7. “My Soul Has Never Been Enslaved”      43
8. “Fire from Two Sides”      47
9. “The Apple Is Ripe”      51
10. “Cancer”      55
11. “First Empress of the New World”      60
12. “My Beloved Son and Emperor”      65
13. “Orphans of the State”      70
14. “Fairy Princess”      75
15. “A Brazilian with All My Heart”      80
16. “Heir to the Throne of Brazil”      84
17. “To Direct the Constitutional Government of an Empire”      89
18. “A Living Symbol”      94
19. “On the Surface of a Volcano”      99
20. “No Place for Women”      106
21. “Side by Side”      111
22. “God and Our Hearts”      115
23. “A Winter Is Before Us”      120
24. “A Wife Should Not Wish to Act Independently”      126
25. “The Far Reaches of Barbarism”      130
26. “A Blind Alley with No Way Out”      136
27. “Isabel’s Lament”      141
28. “The Never Ending War”      146
29. “Flowers, Not Blood”      151
30. “The Loss of All Our Hopes”      157
31. “Just a Dream”      163
32. “Great and Good Friend”      170
33. “The Best Virtues of Having Power”      175
34. “The Politics of Horror”      180
35. “A Cordial Democracy”      184
36. “The Place Which Is Rightfully Hers”      191
37. “Walking Toward an Abyss”      197
38. “The Unfathomable Designs of Providence”      204
39. “The Hour of Reason”      212
40. “Turning Point”      222
41. “Fight for the Princess”     231
42. “Conspiracy”      241
43. Exiles Under the Southern Cross      247

Appendix A: Monarchs of Portugal, 1321–1853      255
Appendix B: The Monarchy in Brazil, 1808–1889      257
Chapter Notes      259
Bibliography      277
Index      287

“a lively and interesting account…solid…recommended”—Choice; “valuable”—Multicultural Review; “history comes alive in this account of the life and deeds of Isabel Orleans-Bragança–The Brazilian Princess who freed the Slaves in Brazil. The product of over a decade of research on three continents, this book marks an historical milestone in the inclusion of women in Brazilian history.”—Dr. Astrid Nilsson Sgarbieri, Professor of Discourse Analyses, PUC–Campinas.