A caminho da liberdade: estratégias de alforrias no Vale do Paraíba Fluminense no século XIX

Abstract

This work proposes a study, in a systematic and vertical way, of some paths that lead to several of the captives, but specifically of the captives, from Vale do Paraíba Fluminense, to freedom. In this way, an approach diverges from generalizing concepts that classify freedom and manumission as similar things; each is understood as different hypotheses, but immersed in the same process. For that, approximately 470 wills from the Municipal Archive of Piraí were consulted, in addition to 116 others from the collection of the extinct Center of Historical Documentation of Vassouras. Criminal inventories and prosecutions have also been added to the research to understand that studying as freedoms and as freedom through the Letters of Liberty alone would create a very naked image of these benefits, not allowing to perceive as real motivations that were hidden behind the donations. The sources, and the data collected from them, were presented under the magnifying glass of Ethno-History, with the help of Cultural History and Micro-History, in order to better understand the dynamic power relations that were established between captive women and their masters in the struggle for the conquest or concession of freedom, as well as to measure the material results of this struggle. It is possible to perceive that many slave women, once under the sexual dominion of their masters, and with no other possible choice in sight, make this unfavorable condition an opportunity to minimize the rigors of slavery and, sometimes, this resilience resulted in obtaining manumission, non-receipt of small or high-value goods, plantations, land and real estate, both for themselves and for children born in captivity, invariably as a result of the sexual advances of their owners.