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Resenha de:BEZERRA Neto, José Maria; LAURINDO Junior, Luiz Carlos (orgs.). Escravidão urbana e abolicionismo no Grão-Pará, século XIX. Jundiaí: Paco Editorial, 2020. 364p.

This article seeks to explain the breakdown of post-colonial order
in the
northern Brazilian province of Maranhão that culminated in the Balaiada

rebellion (1838–41). Interpretations usually do not take into account
the intense
political agitation of the previous decades, which already involved lower
class
participation, and they fail to recognise the major socio-economic differences

between the areas touched by the revolt. The main arguments are, first,
that the
struggle for Independence in Maranhão, more violent than in most
other
provinces, opened the door to lower class involvement in politics under
liberal
leadership. Secondly, the struggle between local elites for regional power
led to
exclusion of peripheral elites within the province and fuelled lower class
unrest.
Significant moments of rupture between liberal leadership and popular movement

occurred as early as 1823–4 and 1831–2. Thirdly, the main structural
factor
leading to the 1838 outbreak of rebellion was the resistance to military

recruitment by the free lower classes, which provided a unifying slogan
to
otherwise heterogeneous groups of peasants, cowboys, and fishermen. Fourthly,

the differences in social structure between the cattle producing South,
the cotton
plantation belt of the Itapecuru valley and the strong subsistence sector
in Eastern
Maranhão account for substantial differences in terms of support
and leadership
during the Balaiada. Whilst fazendeiros lead the struggle in Southern
Maranhão,
as well as in most of the neighbouring Piauí province, leadership
in Eastern
Maranhão was almost entirely of lower class origin. Finally, the
dynamics of the
movement could lead in Eastern Maranhão to a rupture with elite
liberalism and
envisage the alliance between free rebels and maroons.

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