"Negrinhas" and "Negrinhos": the child slave and the travel literature of the 19th century in Brazil

• Grant number: 11/21189-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Jaime Rodrigues
• Grantee: Rafael Domingos Oliveira da Silva
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The slave childs are mentioned by the historiography of slavery. However, just recently they gained ground in studies on the subject. As is the case with the theme of the slave family, the research on the child are more common in studies of historical demography. But the social history demands the expansion of research in order to extend the quantitative results, focusing on the analysis in daily life and human experience understood and constructed socially. This project is part of this approach, trying to analyze the ways in which the existence of this figure was perceived. We selected, among other sources, reports of travelers who visited Brazil during the 19th century, understood in its specificity and in view of the methods for studying them, from the perspective that silences possible about the child does not necessarily mean the denial of its existence or the impossibility to study. In this effort, we will consider further quantitative studies on population and slave family, kinship, cronyism and baptisms and slave narratives.