My Hero is João Cândido Felisberto.
The leader of “Revolta da Chibata”!
He was born in Rio Grande do Sul, your family was very poor
Afro-Brazilian. His father and mother were former slaves. He entered the
Brazilian Navy in 1894 at the age of 13, like volutary. In his epoca 99% of
sailor was crime men arrest by police!
The conditions for Brazilian sailors at the time were terrible, and
being a black, Felisberto suffered even more from the prejudice of his white
and latino colleagues in the Brazilian navy. Joao Candido was stationed in
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in England for two years during the construction of the
dreadnought Minas Geraes, and it was while experiencing the living
conditions and increased freedoms of Newcastle that Felisberto realised how
unacceptable conditions in the Brazilian Navy were. In 1910, after a hugely
unpopular whipping of a sailor, he led a revolt, known in Brazil as
"Revolta da Chibata" ("Revolt of the Whip"). Sailors took
control of two Brazilian battleships, Minas Gerais and São Paulo,
both built in England, as well as two other major warships. Their demands
included the abolition of torture as a form of punishment and improved living
conditions in the Brazilian Navy. The new Brazilian president, Hermes da
Fonseca, approved an amnesty, but the government later went back on this
promise. In the revolt's aftermath Felisberto and many of his follower
mutineers were either arrested, tortured or murdered in prison. Felisberto
himself was tortured, and also contracted tuberculosis, but he recovered after
some months and was eventually released. The Brazilian press nicknamed him
"Almirante Negro", or the "Black Admiral", for his actions.
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