“Reprimir vadios e contê-los na desregrada vida que levam”: trabalho e vadiagem no pós-abolição em Maceió (1890-1910)

Abstract

This dissertation has as its theme the post-abolition in the city of Maceió/AL, with a time frame inserted in the last decade of the nineteenth century and in the first decade of the twentieth, justified by the sanction, in 1890, of the Penal Code, which determined as a crime the loitering and capoeira, being one of the main instruments responsible for the difficulty of the access of the former captives to a full citizenship. Tus, the main objective is to identify and analyze the experiences and life trajectories of lack men and women who inhabited Maceió in the immediate post-abolition period, specifically, between the decades of 1890 and 1910, understanding how the political-legal instruments acted for this transformation. The problem that the dissertation raises is that the materiality of the aforementioned legislation, in the decades after abolition, outlined the path by which the former enslaved migrated to a condition of “second class citizens”. However, this context did not prevent the elaboration of individual and collective strategies aimed at breaking with that condition of subordination. We start, then, from the assumption that the study of such strategic resources creates the necessary tools to help us understand the position that black men and women occupy, even today, in Brazilian society. Therefore, we adopted as a theoretical-methodological basis the literature review, based on Social History, with reference to authors such as Flávio Gomes and Olívia Cunha (2007), Wlamyra Albuquerque (2009), Flávio dos Santos Gomes and Petrônio Domingues (2013), Clóvis Moura (2008), among others, and qualitative analysis of the legislation applicable to the theme and of historical sources such as newspapers, like Gutenberg and Orbe, photographs and letters, obtained mainly from the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico de Alagoas (Historical and Geographical Institute of Alagoas) and the Arquivo Público de Alagoas (Public Archive of Alagoas). Thus, we initially approached the penal code of 1890, the constitution of 1891 and the municipal laws of Maceió, as mechanisms of limitation of full citizenship to the black population. In the second chapter, we contemplate documents that referred to the work in the countryside, related to immigration, and in the urban area, related to the dynamics of economic relations, urban space, exclusion of access to citizenship for those egressed from slavery and the mechanisms of reaction to break with the condition of subalternity, which is even encouraged by laws in force. Finally, in the third chapter, we go through the paths of resistance of the black population in the capital of Alagoas, understanding the role of the press in the formation of the local imaginary, we reflect on the creation of spaces such as the Asilo de Mendicidade (Asylum of Mendicity) and the schools of craftsmen, as well as we seek to understand the determining factor for the Quebra de Xangô (Shangô Break) in 1912. We conclude that, although society in the post-abolition did not ensure the guarantee of legal equality to the former enslaved, but, on the contrary, criminalizes their cultural expressions and beliefs, the black population has resisted. Blacks developed, even if precariously, before the limitations imposed by legal mechanisms founded on prejudiced precepts, in which the social position of individuals was determined by the color of their skin.