Educação dos negros em Santa Catarina: narrativas, expectativas, experiências (1850-1889).

Abstract

The subject of black education, with all its complexity, was latent in everyday Santa Catarina province, despite not being reflected in the historiography. The silence is observed in narratives about the black population of the imperial period, present in books considered classics of the historiography among writers from traditional cultural institutions. The rarity of representations of black population out of the question of slavery, on these works, may have contributed to the construction of recurrent premises in the social imaginary such as that black people were not studying. In addition to analyzing these narratives, this research examines expectations and experiences regarding the education of black population in the province. The expectations were observed in educational legislation, in speeches of the press and Santa Catarina's government, which appeared mainly in the discussions about the Brazilian Law of Free Birth, with the emergence of the figure of the ingênuo . In the press, many articles pointed to black education as an important way to prepare to free labor, ensuring social order. In the official speeches of the government, the issue was addressed less frequently, defending the freedmen's education to prevent anarchy and enable the conscious vote. However, the school enrollment prohibition to enslaved in laws of Education indicated another expectation of the government, linked to the fear of riots. Similar views were also observed in the United States' laws in the slavery period. Concerning the educational experiences in Santa Catarina, this research found that the institutions that served to needy children the Naval Academy, the Asylum of Mercy, the night schools and the Arts and Crafts Lyceum, could fulfill the role of schooling black population, including enslaved. Since only one ingênuo was delivered by the owner to the Santa Catarina government and that the responsibility for his education was of the tutor, there was not the need to create some own establishment for the education of ingênuos , as requested by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture to all provinces. Finally, this research discusses diverse experiences of the education of the free black population and the appreciation and struggle for education. The documents comprehend Santa Catarina's history books, journals, reports and government official papers, laws and acts of the government and of the Irmandade dos Passos , among others, analyzed from the perspective of Foucault's discourse analysis. The periodization of research reaches relevant events of the 1850s, such as the imposition of the prohibition on school enrollment to the enslaved, the establishment of the Naval Academy and the creation of the Asylum, until the last year of the imperial period. This research presents some elements to break silences and put the province on the map of studies of the history of black education in the Brazilian Empire, highlighting issues still little explored in the field. It also enables a deeper reflection on our story of exclusion, allowing the expansion of the view and the understanding that the purely meritocratic treatment to those who have historically been treated as unequal does not contribute to building a more egalitarian society