Outros Sujeitos da Abolição: itinerários de abolicionistas no Recôncavo da Bahia (Cachoeira, 1880-1891)

Abstract

In this doctoral study, I analyse the itinerary of the Cachoeiranos Cincinato Ricardo Pereira da Franca, Manuel Tranquilino Bastos and Cesário Ribeiro Mendes, between the turbulent years of 1880 and 1891. Through the life histories of these individuals, I seek to figure out the tensions and social clashes related with the directions concerning abolition and the first years after emancipation, in Cachoeira town, in the Recôncavo of Bahia region. The trajectories of these abolitionists appear related with struggle for freedom and they evidence, besides the conflicting relationships with the land owners, in the final moments of slavery, the expectations and hope of several enslaved men, who elaborated various forms of resistance and confrontation of the slavery world. The crossing of different documents, such as freedom actions, inventories, police correspondences, baptism registers, journals, criminal cases, among others, allowed me to verify that the abolitionists of this study, allied with many others individuals, had active participation in the slavery deconstruction process, tensioning the secular land owner power in the Recôncavo of Bahia region. In this regard, I argue that, in spite of the fighting stance adopted by the abolitionists Cincinato Franca, Tranquilino Bastos and Cesário Mendes, the historiography, which approached the last years of the slavery, favored the actions and strategies of other subjects involved in the campaign for abolition, notably the ones who acted in the southeast of the country, regarded as the Brazilian abolitionism maximum expression. The abolitionists’ actions, who acted in the Recôncavo of Bahia region, point to the need to increase the view towards other subjects, who mobilized critical topics in the later years of the XIX century and, therefore, rethink the abolition historiography solidified in the abolitionists who acted in the Rio-São Paulo axis.