Escravizados na província da Paraíba: uma análise das cartas e escrituras de alforria no município de Mamanguape (1868 - 1887)

Abstract

This study focuses on public deeds and other documents in the collection of the Notary's Office of the city of Mamanguape, located on the coast of Paraíba. Initially, we sought to identify and catalog all acts involving slaves in the municipality, such as sales, donations, wills and manumissions. In total, 457 operations were identified, from the period between 1868 and 1887. We chose to work only with the manumission documents (124), which, in our opinion, are more suitable for giving visibility to the enslaved. In order to obtain a photograph of the condition of captives in the region, we initially sought to observe the profile of captives in Brazil, identifying data relating to africans brought to the country, and then observing the real living conditions of both captives, as well as freedmen, in the social environment. Next, we draw a profile of the enslaved people introduced into Parahyba do Norte. The objective was to verify how settlement occurred in the different regions of the province, as the region was colonized. Finally, the material found in Mamanguape shows that, as in the rest of Paraíba, women benefited more than men from the manumissions found in the municipality. Other aspects, such as skin color, age and value, were also important factors in facilitating or hindering captives' obtaining manumission. The data contained in this dissertation can support the teaching of History in discussions related to local themes from the imperial period and make visible the conditions of enslaved subjects in nineteenth-century Brazil. The data and tables systematizing the results of this research will be made public and made available to Instituto Borboleta, a movement linked to the black cause, whose purpose is to promote courses, lectures and meetings in the Vale do Mamanguape region. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]