Ingênuos e famílias negras: as crianças marcadas pela lei do ventre livre nos campos de lages/sc (1871-1888)

Abstract

The present research, developed as a requirement to obtain the degree in History at Federal University of Fronteira Sul, analyzes and investigates the ingênuos in the municipalities of Campos Novos, Curitibanos and Lages, in the province of Santa Catarina, during the period of the Free Birth Law, 1871 until the abolition of slavery in 1888. From this identification, we enquire the relationships in and out of captivity from the ecclesiastical and clerical records of the ingênuos and their families. In this way, we analyze the configuration of the society from the emergence of children of enslaved mothers (ingênuos) and the impact of the Free Birth Law in the communities in question. For a better understanding of the slavery dynamics, the Free Birth Law and the ingênuos, we work with the following methodological structure: first) the mapping of the ingênuos born in the places previously exposed, from the promulgation of the Free Birth Law in 1871 to 1888, in ecclesiastical records; second) the relations established in the baptismal font, the compadrio and its importance to the condition of the ingênuos in society. This present study was aported in the Social History of slavery, which writing dates back to the late 1980s. We use ecclesiastical documents of order (vital events) as sources, besides using as auxiliary sources the Reports of the Province President, the writings of Law No. 2040/1871 and the Census of 1872; ecclesiastical records provided us with variables in which each ingênuo is identified. In order to understand the aspects above, we consider parish interventions in the construction of ecclesiastical records as agents in compliance with the law of 1871. The sources indicate that the ingênuos were a significant part of this enslaved society, formed black families and through relations of compadrio built webs seeking social ascension and freedom. In addition, we verified the presence of "flowers in the senzalas" and the configuration of a complex society, with diverse associations that glimpsed freedom and citizenship.