SLAVERY ON THE INTERIOR OF PARAHYBA

FORMATION OF SLAVES FAMILIES IN THE ALAGOA GRANDE IN THE 19th CENTURY (1862-1872)

Abstract

The oficial historiography, propagated by the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Paraibano – IHGP [Historical and Geographic Institute Paraibano] sought to diminish the black presence in the interior of Paraíba, affirming that this population was restricted to the coastal space. This article, contraty to this view propagated by the IHGP, seeks to evidence the black presence in the Paraíba swamp, focusing on the formation of slave familes in the city of Alagoa Grande in the 19th century. In this sense, this clipping, situated in the contexto of the weakening of the slave institution, contributes with the historiography on the slavery of Paraíba and the city of Alagoa Grande, the later until then nonexistent. Rescuing life stories from people who, even while living in the same space-time, experienced slavery in different ways, constituted families and faced life situations adversely, I try to demonstrate the complexity of the social relations that were woven in brazilian slave society, expanding the antagonistic notions of lord (White) and enslaved (black), who permeated for a certain time the Paraíba historiography on the subject.