Open your eyes wide. You are seeing something which no one else sees. In front of you is a square with an earthen floor, and in the middle of it, a trunk stuck in the ground. It’s the pelourinho, the pillory.
There were many in Rio de Janeiro until 1888, when slavery was abolished in Brazil. In various squares, the pillories served as an area to punish slaves. It was a public spectacle.
Every morning, the police brought a line of slaves from the jail, bound by their necks and wearing tattered clothing. They were tied to the post or laid on the ground, having been sent there for punishment by their owners. Then, a flogger applied between fifty and two hundred lashes, depending on the crime. In most cases, they were slaves who attempted to escape. Who had tried to gain their liberty.
Now imagine the sensation of being there, among the whites, blacks, and mixed-race attendees who came to witness the horrid spectacle.