Critical-philological reading of Resolution of 1822: revolts, surveillance, violence and punishment in 19th century Bahia

Abstract

This article presents a critical-philological study, from the semidiplomatic edition and the paleographic comments, of Resolution 1822, from Cachoeira - Bahia, which records the need for management of social control of the black population in Brazil, with a view to repression of the movements of slave revolts. Cachoeira was one of the most important urban centers of the Recôncavo Baiano in the nineteenth century and, therefore, the scene of constant uprisings of slaves. Certainly, our black heroes left vestiges of struggle and resistance in the legal records, since they represented a security problem that demanded vigilance and legal measures by the imperial and provincial government. These legal measures dialogue with the social and political demands, by those who carried out violent and punitive actions, in relation to the frequent acts of confrontation and resistance promoted by the black people. In this bias, the philological activity of editing texts about the revolts in Bahia requires careful and argumentative research. And so it is necessary to dig the memory of the oppressed groups and to remember the dissident, discontented and silenced bodies by the contexts of slavery, proposing the reflection of these narratives from the critical-philological view.