Deus guarde o Sertão do Pajeú: atuação dos prefeitos de comarca em Flores (1836-1842)

Abstract

This article analyzes the creation and performance of the post of mayor of Sertão do Pajeú, where the deputies of the Pernambuco Provincial Legislative Assembly used a legal breach in the 1834 Additional Act, precisely in the article that gave powers to the provincial legislative assemblies on the creation and the suppression of municipal and provincial employment, and the establishment of their wages, giving rise to their office, through provincial law No. 13 of April 14, 1836. From then on, this authority began to concentrate police and criminal powers, such as arrest, maintain the individual security of the inhabitants, send police patrols to the necessary places, and dissolve the illicit gatherings, among others, provisions that were once in the hands of the Judges of Peace. Flores, which are part of the collection of the Jordão Emerenciano State Public Archive (APEJE), the purpose of this analysis is to understand the role of such an authority in the District of Flores, where a climate of insecurity flourished due to the action of robbers and armed groups against property and individual security, since historically little is known about the existence and exercise of this authority that, in a way, was responsible for the police actions of the pernambucana province in the first half of the nineteenth century, specifically between 1836 and 1842.