Sob o Rigor da Lei: Os Africanos e a Legislação Baiana no Século XIX

Abstract

During the 19th century, Brazilian legislation, specifically the Criminal Code of the Brazilian Empire, sought to meet societal demands by rigorously controlling and punishing the actions of slaves that threatened the slavocratic social structure. The national debate and parliamentary measures to contain and punish the actions of criminal slaves, which included attitudes considered suspicious and threatening, were associated with debates about public safety in the province of Bahia. After the Revolt of the Malês, which occurred in Salvador in 1835, the repression of slave resistance became a priority for provincial presidents and police chiefs, provoking, at times, legal distortions or even violations of the law. In this article, we investigate how provincial legislation manifested social control over the African population in Bahia in the first half of the 19th century in as much as Africans roused “white fear” in Bahian slavocratic society.