Peasant rebellions in Brazilian slave based society: the 'War of the Hornets' (Pernambuco, 1851-1852)

Abstract

The "War of the Hornets" was a rebellion of the free poor people, peasants mostly or, if one prefers, agricultural laborers. The population, startled and scared, rose against the 1851 Imperial Decree on Registration of Newborns and Deceased and, in a lesser degree, against the Decree that ordered the implementation of a National Census. The first one became then known as "Law of Captivity". According to popular belief, as the decree was passed almost simultaneously as the Law that prohibited the African slave trade to Brazil, its main goal was in fact the enslavement of large portions of the population; groups that, until that moment, had neither received any attention from the State, nor from the Northeast sugar plantation owners.