This article demonstrates the existence of black families and the presence of children from these families in public schools of Maranhão, in the nineteenth century. Based on a conjectural methodology newspapers ads of the nineteenth century were consulted and also codices relating to records of baptism, marriage, and documentation of the Government Secretary, located in the Public Archives of the State of Maranhão and Public Library Benedito Leite.
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.
À travers l'exemple de deux provinces sises aux confins septentrionaux (Maranhão) et méridionaux (Rio Grande do Sul) de l'immense Empire du Brésil, cet article souhaite évoquer à grands traits l'extension progressive des frontières du champ littéraire durant le Segundo Reinado depuis son épicentre, la capitale Rio de Janeiro. L'essor d'un milieu littéraire restreint mais actif dans chacune de ces deux provinces témoigne de deux modalités distinctes d'intégration des « petites patries » au sein des Letras Pátrias, avec lesquelles elles entretiennent une filiation parfois compliquée.
Abstract Much of the literature about cotton production in Brazil during the nineteenth century considers cotton as a "poor man's crop" - cultivated by small farmers who did not employ a large slave labor force. However, information provided in population maps from the period between 1800 and 1840 shows that slaves represented half the population in Maranhão, the most important cotton exporter in Brazil until the 1840s. This represented a higher share than in any region in northeast Brazil and was comparable to the slave population shares recorded in the United States' cotton South. This paper shows that, during the cotton boom years (1790-1820), not only was the cotton exported from northeast Brazil to Britain and continental Europe cultivated on large plantations, but also, slave prices were higher in Maranhão than in other Brazilian provinces.
ABSTRACT: With this article I will try to demonstrate how by the use of written arguments, some members of the Society of Jesus in the Real Audiencia de Quito were trying to counteract the projects of land occupation undertaken by the Portuguese Crown in the Northwestern of the Amazon basin (province of Maynas) during the 18th century. For that, I will use the different defensive arguments written by some of the jesuit missionaries against the Portuguese inhabitants from the capitanias of Grão Pará and Maranhão. Arguments that show the complexity of those imperial disputes, but that were not effective to prevent the constant military actions of the Portuguese armies that led to the loss of a huge jurisdictional fraction of the Spanish domains in South America. ; RESUMEN: Con este artículo pretendo mostrar cómo, mediante argumentos escritos, varios miembros de la Compañía de Jesús en la Real Audiencia de Quito trataron de contrarrestar los proyectos de ocupación territorial emprendidos por la corona de Portugal en el noroccidente amazónico (provincia de Maynas) durante la primera mitad del siglo XVIII. Para ello, se emplearán los diferentes argumentos defensivos escritos por algunos misioneros jesuitas en contra de los portugueses de las capitanías de Grão Pará y Maranhão. Estos argumentos demuestran la complejidad de tales disputas imperiales, pero no fueron efectivos para impedir las constantes acciones militares de los ejércitos portugueses que desembocaron en la pérdida de una amplia fracción jurisdiccional de los dominios hispánicos en América del Sur.
