As representações dos escravizados no jornal publicador maranhense no contexto das Leis Antitráfico (1845-1850)

Abstract

In the 1840s, Maranhão faced an economic crisis exacerbated by the decline in cotton production, which directly impacted the region's social and economic structure, still reliant on slave labor. In this context, debates on the abolition of the slave trade to Brazil intensified, generating discussions about slavery and its sociais implications. The research aims to understand how the representations of enslaved people were constructed in the newspaper

Publicador Maranhense between 1845 and 1850, in the context of the approval of the anti- slavery laws Bill Aberdeen (1845) and Eusébio de Queirós (1850), analyzing how these laws

impacted slave relations in the province of Maranhão. The choice of this periodical as a source of study is justified by its publications related to slavery, such as ads for escapes, sales, rentals, and purchases of enslaved people, as well as news about quilombos (communities of escaped slaves) and crimes attributed to captives. These representations in the newspaper, largely produced by slave owners or authorities, reveal not only how Maranhão's society perceived enslaved Africans but also how the system of slavery legitimized and strengthened itself socially. The research is based on the theory of social representation, proposed by Roger Chartier, which analyzes how social groups construct meanings and collective images about subjects and phenomena. In the case of the enslaved, the representations in Publicador Maranhense are seen as constructions that reinforce or challenge the existing power structure. The methodology used combines qualitative and quantitative analyses. The qualitative analysis focuses on the ads for escapes, sales, and rentals of enslaved people, as well as news about quilombos and crimes attributed to captives, with the aim of identifying the discourses and meanings assigned to enslaved individuals in different contexts. The quantitative analysis, in turn, focuses on gathering data from escape ads, aiming to profile the captives, such as age, gender, origin, and the signs of violence suffered, as well as the strategies used to escape, highlighting forms of resistance and the attempt to assert the humanity of the enslaved. Therefore, the analysis of Publicador Maranhense demonstrates that enslaved people were frequently represented as objects of trade or passive figures. However, acts of resistance, such os escapes, are interpreted as forms of struggle against the system of oppression and the search for freedom. From the analysis of the escape ads, it was observed that most of the captives in the publications had varied characteristics, such as occupations, ages, genders, origins, and motivations, showing that they were subjects of their own stories.