Do engenho à Usina: a influência da atividade canavieira no desenvolvimento social e econômico da população Alagoana, com destaque para o município de São Miguel dos Campos-AL

Abstract

The present work makes a historiographical analysis on the role played by the sugar cane culture in Alagoas, with emphasis on the municipality of São Miguel dos Campos, where the social role of the sugar cane sector, its influence on the territorial space and its economy through the modernity of the 21st century, going through conflicts and tensions in the countryside. Sugarcane becomes a significant “character” for the local history in which it is modernized in the face of current technological advances. Labor is discussed according to the historical perspective, in which, in addition to sugarcane, there is a problematization in the social environment of this worker and his relations with society. The economic issue has a prominent place in this narrative, where it opens a qualitative and quantitative discussion of the situation of the mills and mills, given the structural unemployment of the “cane cutter” and its methods of survival based on the assumption of exploiters versus exploited, where the Alagoas and Miguelense society developed and consolidated. The study brings significant symbols that are present in the current flag of the state of Alagoas, among which are the presence of the symbolic representation of a cane branch and a cotton branch within the current flag of the state of Alagoas, demonstrating the importance that these two economic activities played, and still play in the history of the State of Alagoas, I also highlight the cultural representativeness existing in the fields and the limits of these cultures, where a direction is given to the current situation of the cane workers and their problems.