Como se de ventre livre nascesse: experi??ncias de cativeiro, parentesco, emancipa????o e liberdade nos derradeiros anos da escravid??o ??? Rio Pardo/RS, c.1860 - c.1888

Esse estudo tem como proposta investigar experi??ncias de cativeiro, parentesco, emancipa????o e liberdade vivenciadas por trabalhadores escravos (ou que se aproximavam a essa condi????o), nas ??ltimas d??cadas da escravid??o (c.1860 ? c.1888). Nesse empreendimento lan??amos m??o principalmente do cruzamento quantitativo e nominativo de fontes diversas. Como local de observa????o o munic??pio de Rio Pardo, situado na regi??o central da ent??o Prov??ncia de S??o Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul e interligado fluvialmente ?? capital Porto Alegre, com a qual estabelecia rela????es comerciais. Sua economia baseava-se tamb??m na pecu??ria e na agricultura voltadas ao abastecimento interno. Como na maioria dos munic??pios sul-rio-grandenses, registrava o predom??nio de pequenos propriet??rios de escravos, cuja for??a de trabalho estava disseminada por praticamente todas as atividades e espa??os produtivos. O equil??brio entre os sexos e a presen??a de trabalhadores jovens nas posses ao longo das quase tr??s d??cadas de nosso levantamento junto aos invent??rios post-mortem nos fizeram problematizar a import??ncia da reprodu????o end??gena na persist??ncia do cativeiro at?? as v??speras da aboli????o, bem como as configura????es familiares tecidas pelos escravos. Nesse aspecto, os projetos e as estrat??gias de liberta????o engendradas por fam??lias negras, incluindo a?? tanto a forma????o do pec??lio como a constitui????o de la??os espirituais, passando pela apropria????o dos dispositivos legais (sobretudo da lei de 28 de setembro de 1871, conhecida posteriormente como Lei do Ventre Livre), figuravam no repert??rio de recursos dispon??veis e acionados. Escravos aparentemente destitu??dos de la??os familiares, do mesmo modo, se faziam presentes entre aqueles que buscavam a alforria que, para al??m de simbolizar a passagem do cativeiro para a liberdade, operava nesse contexto de reorganiza????o das rela????es trabalhistas como um arranjo de trabalho. O ano de 1884, nesse sentido, ?? emblem??tico por marcar a estrat??gia emancipacionista provincial de libertar sob condi????o de servi??os o maior n??mero de escravos poss??vel, sem romper o poder moral dos escravistas. A presen??a dos filhos livres de mulheres escravas entre os bens inventariados, assim como os pedidos de tutela vinculados ao uso do trabalho desses menores pelos (ex)senhores de suas m??es, ainda nos fizeram problematizar os atributos presentes na liberdade desses sujeitos cujas experi??ncias se aproximavam do cativeiro. A atual situa????o de descendentes de escravos igualmente ser?? pontuada a partir das experi??ncias de uma comunidade quilombola rio-pardense que habita terras doadas aos seus descendentes nos tempos da escravid??o e que resistem desde ent??o ?? expropria????o do territ??rio negro. Por fim, resta dizer que os sensos de justi??a e direito manifestados por esses sujeitos hist??ricos em rela????o ao cativeiro, ?? alforria, ?? fam??lia e ?? liberdade ser??o sobremaneira explicitados.This study has a proposal to investigate captivity experiences, blood relations, emancipation and freedom lived by slave workers (and people who were in almost the same condition) in the last decades of slavery (1860 ? 1888). Therefore, we mainly use the crossing of numbers and names of various sources. As a local to observation the Rio Pardo County, situated in the central region of S??o Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul province and linked by river to Porto Alegre, the province?s capital which both had commercial relations established. Its economy was based also in cattle and agriculture both to respond internal demands. As in the majority of the counties in S??o Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul province Rio Pardo had a predominance of minor slaves owners whose work force was disseminated by practically every productive activities and areas. The equilibrium between genders and the presence of young workers at the slavery sites in almost three decades visited by this work among many post-mortem inventories made us to question the importance of endogenous slave reproduction at the captivity just before the abolition and also the family configurations made by those slaves. Under this aspect the projects and the strategies of freedom produced by afro descendents families included their properties conquered, the constitution of spiritual ties and the appropriation of legal rights (the law of September 28 of 1871 above all, known as the Free Venter Law), all of these were among the legal right resources available and, for that instance, were commonly used. Slaves that didn?t have that kind of family ties made their presences among those who were seeking for freedom - that exceeds the simple symbolization of changing the captivity situation - were operating by working adjustments in this reorganization of the labor relations context. The year of 1884, in this way, has its importance ?cause it marks the province?s emancipation strategy of liberating under some work conditions as many slaves as possible - all of this made to the slaves owners not to loose their moral power. Adding to that, the presence of free children from slaves mothers inventoried among the ex-slaves owners properties as also the requests of guardianship linked to the use of these children work force yet made us to question the attributes presents in the kind of freedom these subjects had in their near captivity experiences. The today situation of slaves? descendents is equally pointed in this study by a presentation of experiences of an afro community located at Rio Pardo County that lives in lands donated to their ancestors in the slavery times and that resists to expropriation nowadays. In the end we must point that the senses of justice and rights manifested by these historical subjects relating the captivity situation, the manumission, family and freedom will be mainly explicated in this work