Enslaved people meanwhile leave the Brazilian plantations…

Enslaved people meanwhile leave the Brazilian plantations in great numbers, and an active underground supports runaways.

Army officers petition the Regent Princess Isabel to relieve them of the duty of pursuing runaway slaves.

Field Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, commander in Rio Grande do Sul, declares in early 1887 that the military "had the obligation to be abolitionist."

The São Paulo assembly petitions the Parliament for immediate abolition.

The agitation reaches such a pitch that to foreign travelers, Brazil appears on the verge of social revolution.

The system is coming apart, and even planters realize that abolition is the way to prevent chaos.