Escravidão velada: cotidiano dos africanos livres no Arsernal de Guerra de Pernambuco. (1854 – 1864)

Abstract

On November 7, 1831, the enactment of a law determined that all enslaved Africans who entered the territory of Brazil after that date would be considered free. However, before acquiring their effective freedom, they should be “rented in squares to private individuals of known establishment and probity” or to serve as freedmen in some public institution “of sea, fortresses, agriculture and crafts” for a period of 14 years. as justification for its adaptation to the Empire's daily life. In Pernambuco, one of the public institutions that most received free Africans, it was the Arsenal de Guerra (War Armory), enrolled in this institution, until the year of 1856, more than 92 africans. The Arsenal (Armory) board received from the provincial government an amount of 240 réis per free African to clothe, heal and feed them. - a value reputed by the directors themselves as insufficient to cover these expenses. Most free Africans had no fixed function and could work both in workshops, in manufacturing, and in maintenance work in the building where the arsenal operated. Go, supported by various documents bequeathed by the Arsenal de Guerra (War Armory) bureaucracy, whose collection belongs to the Arquivo Público Estadual Jordão Emerenciano (APEJE) (State Public Archive Jordão Emerenciano). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the types of services, working conditions and resistance of free Africans in the Arsenal de Guerra de Pernambuco (War Armory of Pernambuco) from 1854 to 1864.