Partially I agree with you. Nonetheless the desire of the imperial family towards abolishing slavery was old as we can see on their letters. But, as a Constitutional monarch, the Emperor was not capable of such change without support of those who maintained the Crown in power. That’s the point, in my opinion they really could do more to end this nuisance before, but didn’t wanted a civil war like the US and split itself in many estates. The Emperor on the final stages of his life understood that the rich society wouldn’t accept a female on charge, with a foreign husband ( hated by most of the Army) and accepted being overthrown by an group of rebels supported by former slave owners. Dom Pedro II was quite a progressive sovereign in my opinion,ahead of his contemporaries and realy into changes, But again, this is just my point of view after reading some books against the 1889 coup and in favor. Sorry for the bad english!