Do cativeiro reformado à contestação da escravidão no Mundo Luso-Brasileiro (1781-1834)
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2016-11-11
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Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
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No final do século XVIII, em Portugal e no Brasil, foi recorrente nos escritos de observadores coetâneos o interesse pela reorganização da agricultura e de diversos elementos a ela ligados. Além de argumentar sobre a utilidade de se revisar as práticas empregadas no âmbito do cultivo propriamente dito, os letrados setecentistas convencionaram advertir aos proprietários rurais sobre a premente necessidade de se melhorar o trato cotidiano e de bem conduzir o trabalho da escravaria em benefício de uma maior eficiência produtiva da colônia portuguesa da América. Anos mais tarde, em princípios do século XIX, outros analistas do regime de cativeiro, ao apresentarem uma leitura distinta sobre o emprego desta força de trabalho, passaram a considerá-la injusta, ofensiva aos valores da fé católica e danosa ao progresso material dos setores agrícola e industrial do país. Tendo em vista a variância dos posicionamentos assumidos por esses letrados coevos – egressos de universidades europeias, sócios de agremiações científicas e membros da burocracia governamental –, a presente dissertação tem como objetivo inquirir, por meio da análise de memórias, ensaios econômicos, missivas dentre outros textos, quais argumentos foram manejados para o estabelecimento de diferentes avaliações sobre a instituição da escravidão africana, tal como era praticada no Brasil no período compreendido entre 1781 – quando da concentração das falas reformistas sobre o governo dos cativos, falas essas mantidas até o início do oitocentos, quando o uso do trabalho compulsório começa a ser qualificado como contraproducente – e 1834 – momento em que a tópica do bom exercício da gestão escravista reassume uma posição privilegiada entre os assuntos abordados nos manuais agronômicos da época.
In the late eighteenth century, in Portugal and in Brazil, it was recurrent in many writings an interest on the reorganization of agriculture and the various elements connected to it. Besides the considerations on the cultivation itself, the eighteenth-century scholars begun to advert the farmers about the urgent need to improve the daily treatment of slaves, for the benefit and efficiency of a larger production in the Americas’ Portuguese colony. Years later, in the early nineteenth century, other analysts of the captivity regime started to present a different reading on the employment of the workforce, considering it as unfair, offensive to the values of the Catholic faith and harmful to the material progress of the country’s agricultural and industrial segments. Given the variance of the positions taken by these coeval scholars - graduated from European universities, scientific associations members and members of the government bureaucracy - this thesis aims to inquire, through the analysis of memories, economic trials, missives, among others texts, which arguments were managed to establish different reviews of the institution of African slavery. This work focuses on the period between 1781 and 1834: 1781, when the reformist speech on the government of the captives gets stronger, up to the early XVIIIth century, when the use of compulsory labour begins to be described as counterproductive; and 1834, a time when the topic of good practice of slave management reassumes a privileged position among the issues presented in agronomical manuals of the time.
In the late eighteenth century, in Portugal and in Brazil, it was recurrent in many writings an interest on the reorganization of agriculture and the various elements connected to it. Besides the considerations on the cultivation itself, the eighteenth-century scholars begun to advert the farmers about the urgent need to improve the daily treatment of slaves, for the benefit and efficiency of a larger production in the Americas’ Portuguese colony. Years later, in the early nineteenth century, other analysts of the captivity regime started to present a different reading on the employment of the workforce, considering it as unfair, offensive to the values of the Catholic faith and harmful to the material progress of the country’s agricultural and industrial segments. Given the variance of the positions taken by these coeval scholars - graduated from European universities, scientific associations members and members of the government bureaucracy - this thesis aims to inquire, through the analysis of memories, economic trials, missives, among others texts, which arguments were managed to establish different reviews of the institution of African slavery. This work focuses on the period between 1781 and 1834: 1781, when the reformist speech on the government of the captives gets stronger, up to the early XVIIIth century, when the use of compulsory labour begins to be described as counterproductive; and 1834, a time when the topic of good practice of slave management reassumes a privileged position among the issues presented in agronomical manuals of the time.
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Escravidão africana, Gestão escravista, Mundo Luso-Brasileiro, Contestações à escravidão, African slavery, Slave management, Luso-Brazilian world, Contestations to slavery