“Foi quando estava acabando o tempo dos escravos”: devoção, redes familiares e conflitos nas últimas décadas da escravidão em Minas Gerais

<p>O objetivo deste artigo é analisar as redes familiares dos antepassados dos dois primeiros capitães da Associação de Congada e Moçambique de Nossa Senhora do Rosário e Nossa Senhora das Mercês nas últimas décadas da escravidão em Piedade do Rio Grande, Minas Gerais. Pretende-se apresentar as alianças, conflitos, negociações e estratégias encontradas por essas famílias escravas e libertas, bem como os caminhos percorridos no aprendizado devocional ligado à Irmandade do Rosário, na cidade vizinha a Piedade, Ibertioga. Os descendentes das famílias dos dois capitães buscaram, desde o pós-Abolição até o tempo presente, ressignificar o passado escravista vivido pelos seus parentes e comemorar a liberdade, através dos cantos, ritmos, danças, músicas e performances realizadas nas festas de Congada e Moçambique – também conhecidas como festas de maio – ao longo dos últimos noventa anos. Por fim, busca-se demonstrar que “foi quando estava acabando o tempo dos escravos” que a última geração do cativeiro de Piedade, entre escravos e livres, deixou como legado às gerações futuras as experiências sentidas e sofridas no tempo da escravidão, com as redes de proteção e os conflitos inerentes a esse período.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave</strong>: famílias escravas | libertos | escravidão | Minas Gerais</p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract:</strong></p><p><em>This article analyzes the family networks created by the ancestors of the two first captains of the Associação Congada e Moçambique de Nossa Senhora do Rosário e Nossa Senhora das Mercês during the last decades of slavery in Piedade do Rio Grande, Minas Gerais, Brazil. I show the alliances, conflicts, negotiations and strategies utilized by the families of slaves and freed people, as well as the paths taken in devotional learning at the Irmandade do Rosário, in Ibertioga, a nearby city. From the Post-Abolition period until the present, the two captains’ descendants have sought to resignify the history of slavery experienced by their relatives, celebrating their freedom through songs, rhythms and dances performed during the Congada e Moçambique celebrations (also known as the “May Festivities”). Lastly, I argue that “when slavery was ending” in Piedade, the last generation to live through those times, both enslaved and freed people, left their experience of suffering as a legacy for the future generations, including the networks of protection and conflicts inherent to that period.</em></p><p><em><strong>Keywords</strong>: enslaved families | freed people | slavery | Minas Gerais</em></p>

Reforçar a identidade e a autoridade: as casas de courás libertos em Vila Rica e Mariana no século XVIII

<p>O artigo acompanha um grupo de libertos africanos, nomeado nas fontes portuguesas como courás, couranos ou variantes, para entender como constituíram suas casas em dois importantes núcleos urbanos da capitania de Minas Gerais ao longo do século XVIII. A economia do ouro possibilitou uma significativa posse de trabalhadores escravos para alguns desses senhores negros. O estudo desvenda a origem desses escravizados e como muitos desses lares mantiveram uma estreita relação com o passado africano desse grupo. De forma comparativa e também conectada, percebeu-se como as duas povoações vizinhas possuíam grupos de africanos forros que, além da alforria, adquiriram bens: casas, estabelecimentos comerciais, minas de ouro e, principalmente, trabalhadores escravos da mesma identidade étnica.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave: </strong>diáspora africana | libertos | escravidão | identidade étnica | posse escravista.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Abstract:</em></strong></p><p><em>This article discusses a group of freed African people identified in Portuguese sources as Courás or Couranos, seeking to understand how they formed their homes in two important urban centers of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais during the eighteenth century. The gold-mining economy facilitated the acquisition of significant numbers of enslaved laborers by black masters. The study examines the origin of these enslaved people and the way in which many of these households maintained a close relationship with their African past. Usinga comparative and connected approach, this paper shows that in both of the two neighboring towns there were enclaves of freed Africans who, in addition to obtaining manumission, also acquired various forms of property, including houses, commercial establishments, gold mines and especially, enslaved people of the same ethnic identity</em>.</p><p><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong>african diaspora | african freed people | slavery | ethnic identity | slave ownership.</p><p><strong><br /></strong></p>

Op weg naar vrijheid en burgerschap

Summary In Rome, Ostia, and other cities of Italy in the imperial period the over-whelming majority of the grave monuments were set up by freed people. Since this predominance does not reflect demographic realities, we may infer that freedmen and freedwomen had strong incentives to set up funerary monuments. This article looks at their tombs from the perspective of freedwomen. How were they portrayed in the reliefs and inscriptions on their tombs? It will be argued that while most presented themselves according to the ideals of the Roman matrona, the respectably married citizen woman, some emphasized their profession as part of their social identity or were portrayed in the guise of female deities following the example of the empresses. Thus, the portraits and epitaphs of freedwomen show a greater diversity than those of freeborn women.

The Abolition of the African Slave Trade in Brazil

The second law banning the African slave trade to Brazil came into force in 1850, and became known as the Eusébio de Queirós Law (de Queirós was then Minister of Justice of the Brazilian Empire). A previous attempt made in 1831 failed and the slave trade continued in the form of smuggling from that date until 1850, although until the mid-1850s there were several illegal landings and, then, traffic to the ports of the Brazil was definitely closed. There were many themes in the political debate before the African slave trade ended, from the end of the 18th century until 1850. During this period, the state, the slaveholders and their representatives in the legislative branch and in the courts of justice maintained pro-slavery arguments but changed the way they were used, under the strong British pressure to end slave trade with diplomatic and military actions since 1807. During the first half of the 19th century and, above all, after the proclamation of Brazilian Independence in 1822, the end of the slave trade became a political question in connection with other important themes regarding the formation of the Brazilian state and nation: the need of a labor force for agriculture, the fear of slave actions, national sovereignty in relation to foreign pressure, the supposed corruption of customs due to slavery, and the formation of a Brazilian people based on the work of slaves, freed people, and the poor. All of these themes would be discussed in public settings, such as Parliament, the press, and books on the defense and propaganda of slavery, for example.

Manumissions

The final chapter probes the ambivalent and varied intimate connections between free, formerly enslaved, and enslaved people from another angle, investigating women’s manumission practices. Manumission or legal freedom has typically been portrayed as a reward offered by white men to the enslaved women whom they maintained largely coercive sexual relationships with. Focusing on women’s manumission directives tells a different story. Whereas men preferred to manumit their biological children, female slaveholders largely freed other adult women whom they perceived to be intimate companions. Women also displayed an interest in manumitting enslaved children, whom they treated as surrogate kin. Women sought to blend these children into their own families, bestowing money, education, and enslaved people on them. A notable portion of female enslavers bestowed money, property, and slaves on the people whom they manumitted. Their actions had multivalent consequences. On the one hand, women who manumitted captives aggregated the community of free people of African descent on the island. On the other, they used slaveholding to co-opt freed people into Jamaica’s slaveholding system. In a place where liberty and slavery were mutually constitutive, enslaving others became a key means of securing and protecting one’s free status.