André Rebouças

André Pinto Rebouças (1838–1898) was a Brazilian military engineer, abolitionist and inventor, son of Antônio Pereira Rebouças (1798–1880) and Carolina Pinto Rebouças. Lawyer, member of Parliament (representing the Brazilian state of Bahia) and an adviser to Pedro II of Brazil, his father was the son of a manumitted slave and a Portuguese tailor. His brothers Antônio Pereira Rebouças Filho and Antônio Pereira Rebouças Filho were also engineers.

André Rebouças became famous in Rio de Janeiro, at the time capital of the Empire of Brazil, solving the trouble of water supply, bringing it from fountain-heads outside the town.

Serving as a military engineer during the War of the Triple Alliance in Paraguay, André Rebouças developed a torpedo, used successfully.

Alongside with Machado de Assis and Olavo Bilac, he was a very important middle class representative with African descent, he also was one of the most important voices for the abolition of slavery in Brazil.

He encouraged the career of Antônio Carlos Gomes, author of the opera O Guarani.

In the 1880s, André Rebouças began to participate actively in the abolitionist cause, he helped to create the Brazilian Anti-Slavery Society, alongside Joaquim Nabuco, José do Patrocínio and others.

After the Republican coup d'État, André Rebouças went into exile with Pedro II to Europe. For two years he stayed exiled in Lisboa, as a correspondent for The Times of London.

In 1892, facing financial problems he went to Luanda and after that, Funchal, in Madeira. In 1898 his body is found at the shoreline. He supposedly committed suicide.

References

• Joseph A. Page (1995), The Brazilians. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0201441918.