Pardos militiamen on the eve of liberalism: color, work and politics (São Paulo, 1797-1831)

• Grant number: 14/24482-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: April 22, 2015
• End date: June 26, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Pedro Luis Puntoni
• Grantee: Fernando Prestes de Souza
• Supervisor: José Manuel Santos Pérez
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad de Salamanca (USAL), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/22236-6 - Pardos militiamen on the eve of liberalism. Color, work and politics (São Paulo, 1797-1831), BP.DR

Abstract

This doctoral research is about the social history of the pardos militiamen of São Paulo, Brazil, in a period registered between from 1797 to 1831. The central problem is to understand how these men experienced the transition from the Old Regime to the Liberalism as from the military corporation of pardos. Analytically, it is organized into three interdependent axes: the examination of military duties and internal organization of the corporation, the investigation of networks of personal relations and socio-economic variables relating to pardos militiamen and finally his political action in the age of revolutions. More precisely, searches to understand how the corporation in question is part of the history of black militia of Hispanic and Luso-American colonial and post-colonial spaces; what were the military functions carried out by the pardos and what was the hierarchical structure of the Regiment; which the role played by the corporation in the organization of social life of pardos, their families and the wider community; how those militiamen, and particularly the officers who held positions of authority and status, positioned themselves on issues concerning blemishes associated with slave ancestry, their socio-economic situation and its social functions; Finally, the nature and the meaning of relationship established between these low extraction men and the state. Methodologically, seeks to develop these analytical problems in a wider sense, procedural, and, in the cases of pertinence, employing the comparative perspective. On the one hand, there are vast historiography production about the Spanish American black militias, in whose works are covered crucial points to this research; in the other hand, the survey and collection of primary sources in Spanish and Lusitanian files will allow to made more refined the treatment concerning the individual comparisons, which will help to illuminate aspects of the social life and the political action of the pardos militiamen of São Paulo. (AU)