Ilegalidade e escravidão: africanos e ações de liberdade no Maranhão (1841-1886)

Abstract

In Maranhão during the 1800s, Africans in conditions of enslavement sought the justice system to claim their freedoms, making use of legal loopholes in the judicial system. Their main argument was that they were free because they had been trafficked illegally to Maranhão after the enactment of the Law of November 7, 1831, more precisely during or shortly after the Raimundo Gomes uprising (Balaiada). Among these Africans were Cordulina, a slave of Commander Fabio Gomes da Silva Belfort and the orphan judge Felippe Joaquim Gomes de Macedo; and Thereza, a slave of George Gromwell. Residents of the Coroatá region, part of what was then called Ribeira do Itapecuru, Cordulina and Thereza worked on properties producing cotton and rice, among other goods. Their trajectories connect with those of other Africans, such as Mamede and Maria, residents of São Luís, as both in the interior and the capital of the Province of Maranhão, the strategies these individuals used to fight for their freedom aligned. Claiming their freedoms through writs of freedom—a type of legal document rarely used locally for studies on slavery—the trajectories of these Africans are analyzed through the lens of Microhistory and the concept of agency, providing an analytical perspective that can be useful for the study of slavery in Maranhão. On the other hand, the paths of these social subjects reveal a scenario of transformations in Maranhão’s slavery system, driven by the global capitalist system and the Atlantic slave trade, with the occupation of new areas for commodity production.