Space, slavery and free labor in Paulista New West: Ibicaba farm (1847-1888)

• Grant number: 14/10810-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2014
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Rafael de Bivar Marquese
• Grantee: Felipe Landim Ribeiro Mendes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This proposed study aims to analyze the spatial configuration of the coffee plantation of Paulista West in the second half of the nineteenth century. The research has as point of observation Ibicaba Farm - located in the current Cordeirópolis city - in the period between the introduction of the first group of Swiss and German immigrants intended to work in the coffee plantations and the abolition of slavery in Brazil. By using criminal records, photographs and reports of travelers, the research intends to observe how the spatiality was a vector of disputes between colonists and slaveholders - which contributed to the metamorphosis of the free labor system - and what are the possible interactions among the experience with the colonists, the architectural reconfiguration of the farm, the conflicts involving workers and masters and the slavery crisis.