A ESCRAVIDÃO URBANA EM SÃO LUIS-MA: TRABALHO E VIDA COTIDIANA (1867-1871)

Abstract

São Luís is an Atlantic city linked to the world economic context, the force of slave labor in it is not just an accessory, but the fuel of economic structure during the 19th century. That way, the enslaved live, coexist, build and compose the daily life of the city, capital of the province of Maranhão. During their activities, the enslaved create a set of strategies in order to experience freedoms, deliberate a physical and mental effort to preserve the desire to live, considering that violence and suffering are intrinsic to their condition of slave. The objective of this work is to analyze slavery in the urban context of the São Luís city during the temporary milestone that was the possibility of conquering freedom for the enslaved who fought in the Paraguayan War (1867) and the enactment of the law of the free womb (1871 ), that is, a moment in which the freedom of enslaved people was an issue to be widely extended in the most diverse areas of society, to understand how the spaces, transit, permanence and agency of enslaved people were composed. The methodology of social history applied to the documentary analysis of the newspaper Publicador Maranhense was used. This periodical was the one with the highest frequency of publications during the analyzed period, being one of the main newspapers in circulation in São Luís in the 19th century and spokesman for the provincial government of Maranhão. Bibliographic sources specialized in the social history of slavery, at national and local levels, were also used.