very there. The slave might marry on the plantation,
but the very next day he might be sold, and separated from his wife
and parents. The auction block is the foulest stain on the whole
parasitic institution of slavery in the United States. In Brazil the
sale of slaves from one master to another apparently was never as
extensive as in our own country.[25] Moreover, the sanctity of
marriage was far more highly regarded in Brazil than in the United
States. A slave, who wished to be married had first to learn the
requisite number of prayers; he must understand the confession, and
receive the sacraments. Then, having received the consent of the
master, he was married by the vicar. A slave might marry a freeman. If
the husband were free and the wife slave, the child of the union was a
slave; vice versa, a slave father and free mother produced a free
child.[26]

In language, we find in both the Old South and Brazil, that the
Africans soon forgot their native dialects, and adopted the tongue of
their new home, and their language did not materially influence that
of their masters in America.

Religion was a vital factor in slave life. In the Old South, religion
was at first discouraged among the slaves. There was a reason for
this, for masters knew that nowhere in Christian teachings were there
provisions for enslaving Christians.[27] Never was religion encouraged
to a great degree. In fact, as late as 1831, Virginia passed a
measure, declaring that neither free nor slave Negro might "preach,
exhort, or teach in any Negro assemblage." Nevertheless, religious
sentiment waxed ever stronger. Beginning with the taboos of the
deported tribal priest, and gradually becoming influenced by
Christianity, the great Negro Church[28] grew. Sometimes the Negroes
were allowed to worship under the same roof as their white
superiors,[29] but they usually had to steal away to some secret place
for this purpose. In Brazil, however, Christianization of the slaves
was an essential. Before the Negroes in Angola (Portuguese West
Africa) embarked on the slave vessel for Brazil, they were baptized
"en masse." Arriving in the new world, they were branded with the
crown, which proved that they had been baptized and that the king's
duty on them had been paid. Next, they had to learn the doctrines of
the Church and the duties of the religion they were about to embrace.
Slaves from the other parts of Africa were Christianized after a year
following arriv