HIST/LAS 3401W: Study Guide for Brazil Readings and Documents
Early Settlement in Brazil
The readings on Domingo Fernandes Nobre add another dimension to our understanding of colonial religion, but also relate to other aspects of the early settlement of Brazil: relations between Portuguese settlements on the coast and indigenous societies of the interior, the role of mediators between the two worlds (what Metcalf calls “go-betweens”), and cultural and racial mixing. Metcalf’s chapter in The Human Tradition provides a good overview of the settlement of Brazil, differences between Portuguese and Spanish colonization, as well as specifics about the Inquisition, the Santidade religious movement, and the life and confession of Fernandes Nobre (alias Tomacauna).
As you read the life history and the confession (document), consider the following questions:
1. Compare Portuguese colonization of Brazil to Spanish settlements in the Americas.
2. How does Fernandes Nobre/Tomacauna serve as a go-between? How does he compare to other mediators like Malintzin or Guaman Poma?
3. What is the nature of the Santidade movement? To what degree is it a fusion of different spiritual traditions? Do you think it is an example of religious resistance? Religious adaptation?
4. How does the interrogation and confession of Fernandes Nobre compare to that of Francisco Poma?
5. What are the gender dynamics of Portuguese colonization and the Santidade movement?
Mattoso does a good job of evoking the lives and experiences of Africans enslaved and taken to Brazil. Be aware that there is a glossary at the end for unfamiliar terms.
Slave Resistance and Rebellion
Mattoso begins Chapter 6 with the statement: "For slaves, to unite was to protest, even if that protest took the form of behavior sanctioned by the masters (p. 125.)" Keep that statement in mind and evaluate it as you read pp. 125-49 and the chapter on Zumbi in The Human Tradition:
1. To what degree and under what circumstances were slaves united?
2. What forms did resistance by slaves take, and to what degree did their actions challenge the system of slavery as a whole?
Documents I and II from Ilheus Revolt (Schwartz handout):
These two documents relate to the uprising of slaves on a plantation (engenho) in Ilhéus, Bahia (Brazil), in 1789. The first document (1806, that is 17 years after the revolt) is a letter from a judicial official (Royal Magistrate Claudio Jose Pereira da Costa) to the governor of Bahia about a prisoner taken after the revolt, Gregorio Luís. (Called "the supplicant" presumably because he had asked to be released after his long imprisonment apparently without trial.) From Document I you can get a sense of how the revolt occurred and was ultimately repressed through a feigned willingness on the part of the planter to negotiate. The second document is a treaty dating from the time of the revolt in which the slaves proposed terms under which they would return to the plantation.
Use the index and glossary in Mattoso to look up more about the Santana plantation in Ilhéus, the rebellion, and for Portuguese terms; you may also refer back to the study guide on “reading and analyzing historical documents.”
1. The Text: Try to reconstruct the circumstances and events of the rebellion, for example: Who led it and who participated? What were conditions like on the plantation? How were the slaves recaptured? What were the slaves' demands?
2. The Context: Does your reconstruction seem to fit with Mattoso's depiction of plantation life as well as of rebellions and quilombos? (She mentions the Ilhéus revolt on pp. 190 and 205, but provides general context throughout the book). How does it compare to Palmares (Zumbi)?
3. The Subtext: Who composed these documents and under what circumstances? How do those factors affect their content or tone?
4. Interpretation: How revolutionary were the terms proposed by the rebel slaves?
African Slavery in Brazil
Part 2 (pp. 85-149) of Mattoso's book examines what life was like for Brazilian slaves. Although they faced many of the same challenges and forms of oppression, be attentive to variations in their experiences (depending upon such factors as their origin in Africa, the type of labor they performed in Brazil, gender etc.).
1. In addition to working conditions, Chapter 4 addresses the initial challenges of adaptation; what continuities and/or changes were there in an enslaved person's identity after the passage from Africa to Brazil?
2. Chapter 5 continues with a theme begun in Chapter 4, namely how did slaves relate both to each other and to their masters? Brazilian slave owners have sometimes been depicted as relatively benevolent father figures; how would you evaluate the concept of paternalism as it relates to slavery (see also pp. 89-90)?
4. Chapter 7 takes up the theme of manumission, begun in the previous chapter (pp. 145-149). By p. 176, you should be able to answer the following questions:
A. What was the legal definition of manumission?
B. By what different means could slaves gain their freedom?
C. Were certain kinds of slaves in a better position to gain it?
D. What terms might be attached to manumissions?
5. For Chapter 8, consider the question posed by Mattoso at the beginning: "Was being liberated the same as being free (p. 178)?"
6. As you read Chapter 9:
- Identify the various determinants of status in Brazilian society.
- To what degree did freed slaves wish to and/or were able to conform to those standards?
Will of Francisco Nunes De Moraes (Mattoso, pp. 215-220):
Read this and other documents with particular care and attention; in analyzing primary documents, apparently minor details may turn out to be revealing clues. Remember the different levels of analysis from the study guide, and use the information from Mattoso and appropriate lectures to set the context. (You can also check Mattoso's glossary for unfamiliar terms.)
1. The Text: Mine this document for basic information, for example (but not limited to!): Who dictated it? Where was he born? How much property did he leave? etc. . .
2. The Context: Based on Mattoso's chapters about freed slaves, in what ways do you think Nunes de Moraes was typical and/or unusual?
3. The Subtext: How might the circumstances under which this document was composed affect its content or tone?
4. Interpretation: Did the practice of manumission in Brazil threaten the institution of slavery?
EVALUATION OF READING
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Document on Domingos Fernandes Nobre (Inquisition confession)
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Mattoso, To Be a Slave in Brazil
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Documents: Will and Rebellion
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Human Tradition Biographies of Fernandes Nobres and Zumbi
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