During the clashes of the Vaccine Revolt, Rio's neighborhoods turned into war trenches, and by the end of six days, among the 461 people who were arrested and deported was one of the revolt's most feared popular leaders, the capoeirista Prata Preta.
Prata Preta was the nickname of Horácio José da Silva, who, besides being a capoeira fighter, worked as a docker. A Black man, around 30 years old, he led the battles against the Army troops in what became known as the “Porto Artur of the Saúde neighborhood,” in reference to the disputed territory in the Russo-Japanese War, which also took place in 1904.
Portrait of Prata Preta in Avenida magazine. Image taken from the Capoeira History website
Image description: The image is a black and white photograph of a man. He is wearing a wide-brimmed hat, with the tip turned backward. His facial expression is serious, with his eyes looking directly forward. The man is wearing a coat with a high collar and a thin cloth shirt. The image appears to have been taken indoors, with soft light illuminating the man's face.The trenches of Saúde were the last to be brought down. It was believed there was dynamite there and a cannon to stop the advance of the military troops, but when the rebels were subdued, it was discovered that the war materials were nothing but a trick: the so-called dynamite sticks were pieces of wood wrapped in silver paper, hung around the trenches. The cannon, in fact, was one of the many lampposts knocked down by the outraged population, set on top of two cart wheels. From afar it looked frightening, but it was incapable of firing a single shot!
Caricature of Prata Preta in O Malho magazine. Wikimedia Commons
Image description: The image is a black-and-white engraving. In the center, there is a caricatured character with curly hair and a mustache, wearing old-fashioned clothing. He is balancing on a rope, with his arms stretched out to the sides. In the background, we see a simple house with a sloped roof and a large tree on the left. At the bottom of the image, there is text in Portuguese that reads: "O Porto Artur da Saúde e Prata Preta, ridicularizados por O Malho."The surrender of the Porto Artur da Saúde took place on November 16. That same day, before the attack launched by the Army and the Navy, Prata Preta was arrested in a police ambush. With his reputation as a fearless man, he fought in the most dangerous spots along the trenches, and even in the final battle before being captured, he was accused of killing an Army soldier and wounding two policemen. By that point, attention was focused on what was "the last stronghold of anarchism," according to O Paiz. After a state of siege was declared, the barricades of Saúde – which occupied the entire Rua da Harmonia – were attacked: the Army advanced by land, while the Navy, with the battleship Deodoro, subdued the rebels by sea.
As troops advanced, the trenches commanded by Prata Preta were abandoned, and many men were arrested. As for Prata Preta's whereabouts—the man who fooled the military troops with his improvised “war materials”—almost nothing is known after his capture and deportation to Acre.
