Thesis (M. A. in History)--Vanderbilt University, May 2010. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2009. / Principal faculty advisor: Mary Donaldson-Evans, Dept. of Foreign Language & Literatures . Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Over the past three decades in South Africa, the documentation of slave history at the Cape Colony by historians has burgeoned. Congruently, interest in the history of slavery has increased in South African letters and culture. Here, literature is often employed in order to imaginatively represent the subjective view-point and experiences of slaves, as official records contained in historiography and the archive often exclude such interiority. This thesis is a study of the representations of slave subjectivity in two novels: Rayda Jacobs’s The Slave Book (1998) and Unconfessed (2007) by Yvette Christiansë. Its task is to investigate and traverse the multitude of readings made possible in these literary representations, and then to challenge such readings by juxtaposing the representational strategies of the two novels. Both primary texts are works of historical fiction that, in different ways, draw on the archive and historiography in order to grant historical plausibility to their narratives. Engaging with the distinct methods with which they approach and interpret such historical information, I adopt the terms “glimpsing” and “reading sideways”. Throughout this study, I engage each of these methods in order to demonstrate the value, and limits, of each technique in its engagement with the complexities of representing slave subjectivity in the wake of its (predominant) occlusion from historical and official data. Chapter One presents a brief overview of the emergence of the slave past in historiography and public spaces. Following Pumla Gqola’s statement that “slave memory [has] increase[d] in visibility in post-apartheid South Africa”, I move to a discussion of the theoretical perspectives on (re)memory as employed by writers of fiction that exemplify “a higher, more fraught level of activity to the past than simply identifying and recording it ” (“Slaves” 8) . In turn, I identify the imperative archival silence places on authors to write about slaves, and the relevance of genre in this undertaking. Specifically, I consider the romantic and tragic historical fiction genres as they are utilised by Jacobs and Christiansë in approaching representations of slave subjectivity, and how this influences emplotment. Chapter One concludes with a brief exposition of the literary representations offered by Unconfessed and The Slave Book. Chapter Two presents a detailed study of Rayda Jacobs’s The Slave Book as a novel of historical fiction. Jacobs takes up a methodology of “glimpsing” at the slave past through the representations available in historiography. I trace the moments at which the text seeks to convey slave subjectivity, within and without historical discourses, through such “glimpses”, and show how they are employed to establish a focus on interiority and to humanise slave characters. Chapter Three focuses on Yvette Christiansë’s Unconfessed and explores its explicit engagement with silences surrounding the protagonist Sila van den Kaap’s historical presence in the Cape Town Archives. I read Christiansë’s representation of these silences as “acts of looking sideways” at the discursive practices inherent in the historical documentation of slave voices that enact her resistance to “filling” these silences with detailed narrative. I argue that the various forms of silence in the narrative allow for a deeper understanding of the injustices and oppression suffered by Sila van den Kaap, and that it is these silences, ironically, which grant her voice. Chapter Four presents a comparison of the novels and their respective representational techniques of “glimpsing” versus “looking sideways”. While the distinct efficacy and implication of each approach is critically evaluated, both are ultimately found to make an invaluable addition to the literary exploration of slave subjectivity as attention is drawn to the interiority of each text’s characters. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Oor die afgelope drie dekades, het die dokumentasie wat opgelewer is deur historici in Suid- Afrika met betrekking tot die slawe in die Kaapkolonie floreer. Ooreenstemmend, het belangstelling in die geskiedenis van die slawe in die gebied van kultuur en letterkunde toegeneem. In hierdie konteks, word literatuur dikwels in diens geneem om op ‘n verbeeldingsryke manier die subjektiewe standpunt en die bestaan van die slawe te verteenwoording, wat vroeër in amptelike rekords dikwels sodanige innerlikheid uitsluit. Hierdie tesis is 'n studie van die voorstellings van slaaf subjektiwiteit in twee romans: Rayda Jacobs se The Slave Book (1998) en Unconfessed (2007) deur Yvette Christiansë. Dit beoog verder om ondersoek in te stel na die menigte lesings in literêre voorstellings en sodanige lesings uit te daag deur die vergelyking van die twee betrokke tekste. Ek neem die "skramse” en "sywaartse" sienings as metodiek vir die eien en interpretasie van argief-materiaal in die twee tekste. Deurgaans in hierdie studie gebruik ek hierdie metodieke op hulle beurt ten einde die waarde van elke tegniek te demonstreer, in terme van die voorstellingshandeling wat elk gebruik om slaaf subjektiwiteit te verteenwoordig. In Hoofstuk Een, word teoretiese perspektiewe oor ‘herinnering’ soos dit bestaan as gevolg van, en ten spyte van, die argief, beskryf en ontleed. In my oorsig van die rol en doel van die argief sowel as die onthou van 'n slaaf verlede in die hedendaagse Suid-Afrika, word benaderings wat in verskeie velde onderneem is om slawerny en sy slagoffers uit te beeld, ook in ag geneem. Ek identifiseer die noodsaaklikheid wat “stiltes” in die argief op skrywers plaas om oor slawe te skryf, asook die relevansie van die genre in hierdie onderneming. Ek kyk spesifiek na die romantiese en historiese fiksie genres soos hulle deur Jacobs en Christiansë gebruik word in hul voorstellings van slaaf subjektiwiteit, en hoe dit voorstellingshandeling beïnvloed. Hoofstuk Een word afgesluit met 'n kort uiteensetting van die literêre voorstellings, soos uitgebeeld in The Slave Book en Unconfessed. Hoofstuk Twee is 'n ondersoek na die funksie van Rayda Jacobs se The Slave Book as 'n historiese fiksie-roman. Jacobs se roman bepeins die geskiedenis van slawerny deur die voorstellingshandeling van ‘n "skramse kyk”. Ek ondersoek die waarde van die romanse wat in die roman opgeneem word, sowel as Jacobs se gebruik van historiografie om haar verhaal te ondersteun. Hoofstuk Drie fokus op Yvette Christiansë se Unconfessed en die wyse waarop die slaaf karakter as protagonis die stiltes as gemarginaliseerde aan die leser kommunikeer, en daaropvolgend, die wyse waarop die historiese figuur, ten spyte van die stiltes in die argief, kommunikeer. Hierdie metodiek bestempel ek as die "sywaartse kyk". Ek argumenteer dat die stiltes in die roman ‘n leemte laat vir 'n dieper begrip van die onreg en onderdrukking wat deur die protagonis gely word, en dat, ironies genoeg, dit hierdie stiltes is wat aan haar ‘n “stem” gee. Hoofstuk Vier is 'n vergelyking tussen die romans en hul doeltreffendheid. Altwee tekste, van ewe belang nagaande die bevordering van subjektiwiteit van slawe tydens die Kaapkolonie, beslaan elk 'n ander benadering tot die argief en geskiedenis self. Dit is met hierdie perspektiewe waarmee hierdie studie omgaan. Beide tekste vorm ‘n waardevolle toevoeging tot die literêre verkenning van slaaf subjektiwiteit deurdat aandag op die innerlikheid van elke teks se protagoniste gevestig word. Verder, deurdat die tekste met historiografie en die argief omgaan, spreek hulle diskursiewe kwessies rakende slaaf subjektiwiteit en die voorstellings daarvan aan.

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2017-02-23T18:55:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ROBERVAL AMARAL NETO.pdf: 2170360 bytes, checksum: de9040643e9d1613c7dc6de9b6a77b67 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-23T18:55:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ROBERVAL AMARAL NETO.pdf: 2170360 bytes, checksum: de9040643e9d1613c7dc6de9b6a77b67 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-27 / The phenomenon of contemporary slavery: the slave labor in Goias and Maranhao is the object hatholds this dissertation. Thus, from the experience of debt bondage of rural workers, in Goias and Maranhao, he sought to understand economic processes, social and political insist on keeping contemporary slavery in all Brazilian regions. The research target is the goianos workers and maranhenses subjected to debt bondage, from 1995 to 2015. In this analysis, I seek first to highlight the phenomenon of slavery in contemporary Brazil, showing the limits of government policies in combating slavery during the twentieth century, academic discussions about the slave labor of the problem and the decisive role of civil society organizations in combating today's slavery. Then, the analysis holds Goiás, their singularities, political and domestic economic processes and the instruments created by society to fight slavery. Soonafter, analyzes the maranhense slave labor, as political and economic options of the Sarney oligarchy amid the process of modernization of theAmazon, the partners sequele caused by extreme concentration of Maranhão income, conflicts and migration of Maranhao in th emiddle extreme poverty of rural workers who have been expelled from their lands, seeking better days in other states, but they do so within a logic and a resistance strategy within the margins of freedom they have. And to finish the dissertation we seek convergences and divergences between Goias and Maranhao slave labor aimed at finding the connections that enables deep understanding of slavery phenomenon in contemporary Brazil. / O fenômeno da escravidão contemporânea: o trabalho escravo em Goiás e no Maranhão é o objeto de que se ocupa esta dissertação. Assim, a partir da experiência da escravidão por dívida dos trabalhadores rurais, em Goiás e Maranhão, procurou-se compreender os processos econômicos, sociais e políticos que teimam em manter a escravidão contemporânea em todas as regiões brasileiras. A investigação tem como alvo os trabalhadores goianos e maranhenses submetidos à escravidão por dívida, no período de 1995 a 2015. Nesta análise, busco primeiramente salientar o fenômeno da escravidão no Brasil contemporâneo, mostrando os limites das políticas de Estado no combate à escravidão durante o século XX, as discussões acadêmicas em torno da problemática do trabalho escravo e o papel decisivo da sociedade civil organizada no combate à escravidão hodierna. Em seguida, a análise se detém a Goiás, suas singularidades, processos políticos e econômicos internos, assim como os instrumentos criados pela sociedade para combater a escravidão. Logo depois, analisa-se o trabalho escravo maranhense, como as opções políticas e econômicas da oligarquia Sarney em meio ao processo de modernização da Amazônia Legal, as sequelas sociais provocadas pela extrema concentração da riqueza maranhense, os conflitos no campo e a migração dos trabalhadores rurais que sem alternativas concretas, buscam melhores dias em outros estados, mas o fazem dentro de uma lógica e de uma estratégia de resistência dentro das margens de liberdade que possuem. E por fim, busca-se as convergências e divergências entre o trabalho escravo goiano e maranhense, visando, assim, encontrar as conexões que possibilitam a profunda compreensão do fenômeno da escravidão contemporânea.

O objetivo desta investigação é analisar o tráfico de escravos na Capitania do Rio Grande de São Pedro do Sul, na passagem do século XVIII para o XIX. Duas questões básicas orientaram nossa investigação: a análise das características demográficas dos escravos traficados (sexo, naturalidade, condição e faixa etária) e a caracterização da dinâmica de funcionamento do circuito mercantil (composição dos envios, concentração do tráfico e traficantes envolvidos). Verificou-se que, embora se realizasse apenas na sua etapa interna, o tráfico de escravos da capitania apresentava características semelhantes àquelas observadas nas regiões que participavam diretamente do tráfico atlântico de escravos. Quanto ao perfil demográfico, constatou-se o predomínio dos escravos africanos e uma elevada razão de masculinidade, tanto entre os africanos quanto entre os crioulos.Por outro lado, observou-se que aproximadamente 1/3 dos escravos despachados para o Rio Grande de São Pedro do Sul, entre 1788-1802, tinham entre 10 e 14 anos. No que diz respeito ao circuito mercantil, concluiu-se que o comércio se dava através de pequenos envios e era realizado por um grande número de “traficantes eventuais”. Estes pequenos comerciantes foram responsáveis pela comercialização de uma parcela importante do total de escravos e pela maior parte dos envios realizados e, deste modo, foram indispensáveis para o funcionamento do mercado negreiro sul-rio-grandense. As principais fontes utilizadas foram as guias de transporte de escravos emitidas pela Provedoria da Fazenda Real, os despachos e passaporte de escravos emitidos pela Polícia da Corte e o Livro de Sisas da Vila do Rio Grande. / The objective of this investigation is to analyze the slave trade in Capitania do Rio Grande de São Pedro do Sul, during the passage from the 18th to the 19th century. Two basic subjects guided our investigation: the analysis of the demographic characteristics of traded slaves (sex, naturalness, condition and age) and the characterization of the trading circuit (composition of shipments, trade concentration and traders engaged). It was noticed that, although it took place only internally, the slave trade in capitania presented characteristics similar to the ones observed in the regions which participated directly in the Atlantic slave trade. As to the demographic profile, it was verified a predominance of african slaves and a high percentage of males, both among africans and crioulos. On the other hand, it was observed that approximately 1/3 of the slaves sent to Rio Grande de São Pedro do Sul, between 1788-1802, was between 10 and 14 years old. Concerning the trading circuit, it was concluded that the slave trade took place through small shipments and was accomplished by a high number of “eventual traders”.These little traders were responsible for the commercialization of the majority of the slaves and of the shipments. This way, they became indispensable to the success of the slave trade in Rio Grande de São Pedro do Sul. The main sources used were the documents of slaves transportation issued by the Provedoria da Real Fazenda; the dispatching and passports of slaves issued by the Polícia da Corte and the Livro de Sisas da Vila do Rio Grande.

A presente pesquisa parte da emancipação de escravos ocorrida em 1884 em Porto Alegre – ano que teria havido uma suposta “abolição antecipada” no Rio Grande do Sul, para buscar examinar as experiências de trabalho vividas por libertandos, no período transcorrido entre aquele ano e a abolição da escravidão no Brasil em 1888. O processo emancipacionista em curso no país na segunda metade do século XIX pautava-se pela expectativa de uma abolição gradual, que se fizesse de maneira controlada e com respeito ao direito à propriedade escrava. A Lei de 1871 atendia a estes princípios, tendo alterado as bases do escravismo brasileiro e as condições para a conquista da liberdade. É nesse contexto mais amplo que observamos a estratégia de emancipação através de alforrias condicionadas à prestação de serviços adotada em Porto Alegre e estendida ao restante da província. Analisamos, assim, as alforrias registradas em cartório entre 1884 e 1888, traçando um perfil dos libertandos e examinando as condições sob as quais alcançaram a liberdade. Os resultados a que chegamos foram contrastados com a memória oficial construída em torno da uma suposta antecipação da abolição na província. Tal contraste evidenciou que, além de a estratégia de emancipar através de alforrias condicionais ter significado a imposição de limitações ao gozo da liberdade, a própria quantidade de alforrias mapeadas esteve muito longe de extinguir de fato a escravidão. Por outro lado, ao observar de perto o modo como os libertandos teriam vivenciado o período de cumprimento das condições impostas em suas alforrias, pudemos perceber as tensões em que aqueles sujeitos se viram enredados e as disputas em torno dos diferentes modos de compreender o que deveria ser um liberto sob condições. Houve aqueles que cumpriram com seus contratos de prestação de serviços. No entanto, outros tantos impuseram resistência aos desmandos senhoriais, recusando-se a agir conforme a vontade daqueles. Entre estes dois extremos coube toda sorte de experiências. Nos limites do que lhes permitia o mundo do trabalho e os quadros da liberdade nos quais se inseriam na condição de libertos contratados, pudemos identificar uns ou outros tentando modificar suas condições de vida – de modo mais radical ou mais sutil, deixando transparecer o seu entendimento de que ser um liberto condicional não era o mesmo que ser escravo. / This study has as starting point the slave emancipation in Porto Alegre, 1884 - year that there had been an alleged "anticipated abolition" in Rio Grande do Sul – in order to investigate work experiences of freedmen between the year of manumission and the year of abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888. When discussing the underway emancipation process in the country during the second half of the nineteenth century, especially from the Law 1871, which came to change the foundations of Brazilian slavery and the conditions for the achievement of freedom, we insert the movement that led to emancipation of a large number of slaves in the province and especially in its capital, Porto Alegre - mostly with manumission conditioned to provide services - within the lords expectations of abolition to be done gradually, controlled and respecting the right of slave ownership. In this way, we analyzed the registered manumission notarized between 1884 and 1888, drawing a profile of the freedmen and examining the conditions which they achieved their freedom. The results we got were contrasted to the official memory built around a supposed anticipation of the abolition of the province. This contrast showed that, besides the strategy of emancipation through conditional manumission have meant imposing limitations on the tenure of freedom, the number of the mapped manumission was very from the definitive slavery extinguishment. On the other hand, to observe closely how the freedmen have experienced the period of fulfilment of the conditions imposed on their manumission, we could see the tension in those subjects who found themselves entangled, and the disputes around the different ways of understanding what should be a freedmen under conditions. There were those who fulfilled their contracts to provide services. However, many others have imposed resistance to aristocratic excesses, refusing to obey the will of those. Between these two extremes, there was several different experiences. Within the limits of that permitted them to work and the freedom reality in which were inserted in the condition contracted freedmen, we could see some of themtrying to modify their living conditions - more radical or more subtly, stating their understanding that being a conditional freedmen was not the same as being a slave.

Banca: Adler Guilherme Viadana / Banca: Silvio Carlos Bray / Banca: José Bueno Conti / Banca: Maria Geralda de Almeida / Banca: Oswaldo Bueno Amorim Filho / Resumo: A pesquisa resgata o trecho paulista do "Caminho Novo", antiga estrada geral de São Paulo, ligação terrestre com o Rio de Janeiro, a partir do século XVIII. No chamado Vale Histórico da Serra da Bocaina, cujo relevo se apresenta muito movimentado, a cultura do café penetrou em território paulista. Esta sub-região do Vale do Paraíba tornou-se uma das mais prósperas do país. A fase posterior, de queda na produção cafeeira, transformou-a numa região "deprimida" e estagnada. Atualmente, existem esforços para, através dos diversos ramos do turismo, reativar e dinamizar esta região vale-paraibana paulista, de modo a reintegrá-la ao pujante sistema econômico de São Paulo. / Abstract: The research rescues part of Paulista's "New Way", an old general highway of Sao Paulo, a linking land conection with Rio de Janeiro, from eighteenth century on. Through the known as Historical Bocainas's Valley, whose relief presents itself as a turnover, the coffee culture penetrated in the paulista's territory. This sub-region of Paraíba's Valley became one of the most prosperous regions of the Country. The later faze, of a drop in coffee production, transformed it in a depressed and stagnant region. Currently there are efforts, through various branches of tourism, and re-energize the region of Paraibana Paulista valley, to reinstate her to the vibrant economic system of São Paulo.

?rea de concentra??o: Pol?tica, sociedade e cultura. / Submitted by M?rden L?les (marden.inacio@ufvjm.edu.br) on 2016-07-12T01:10:12Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) lilian_aparecida_oliveira.pdf: 4173415 bytes, checksum: f95bdec358607f768ed8db76bff7e901 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Martins Cruz (rodrigo.cruz@ufvjm.edu.br) on 2016-07-18T12:22:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) lilian_aparecida_oliveira.pdf: 4173415 bytes, checksum: f95bdec358607f768ed8db76bff7e901 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T12:22:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) lilian_aparecida_oliveira.pdf: 4173415 bytes, checksum: f95bdec358607f768ed8db76bff7e901 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / RESUMO A pesquisa que resultou na reda??o desta disserta??o buscou identificar a trajet?ria hist?rica do Museu do Diamante na cidade de Diamantina, Minas Gerais, institu?do em 1954 pelo modernista Rodrigo Mello Franco de Andrade, primeiro diretor do Sphan. Por meio de suas cole??es, documenta??o museol?gica e arquivo permanente entre os anos de 1947 a 1957, buscou-se compreender os crit?rios que nortearam as primeiras aquisi??es de seu acervo e a concep??o estabelecida por seus ide?logos. Oportunidade que propiciou a identifica??o e problematiza??o das primeiras cole??es adquiridas e expostas, bem como os sentidos de um museu p?blico cuja origem tem suas ra?zes fundadas em cole??es oriundas de antiqu?rio e cole??es particulares e religiosa institucionalizadas no MD, em um museu p?blico. / Disserta??o (Mestrado Profissional) ? Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Ci?ncias Humanas, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, 2015. / ABSTRACT The research that resulted in the writing of this thesis was to identify the historical trajectory of Diamond Museum in the city of Diamantina, Minas Gerais, established in 1954 by modernist Rodrigo Mello Franco de Andrade, first director of Sphan. Through its collections, museological documentation and permanent file between the years 1947-1957, he sought to understand the criteria that guided the first acquisitions for its collection and the design established by its ideologues. Opportunity that led to the identification and questioning of the first acquired and exhibited collections, as well as the senses of a public museum whose origin has its roots founded in collections coming from antiquarian and private and religious collections institutionalized in MD, in a public museum.

Este estudo analisa situações de reconhecimento dos territórios de quilombos no concurso da efetivação do artigo 68 da Constituição Federal. Através da etnografia realizada num contexto local – Morro Alto/RS- procuro abordar a dimensão de releitura da experiência histórica da escravatura que lança os grupos sociais negros num novo patamar de reivindiçação de direitos que até então não tinham previsão no direito estatal. Pesquiso a dinâmica sócio-juridica em torno da implementação desse artigo para observar se a mesma tem permitido ativar, no campo normativo e discursivo, eixos de interlocução com as noções e perspectivas de direito e justiça que carregam os grupos sociais, de tal modo que os mesmos ingressem no debate nacional. Me dedico também a refletir sobre uma visibilidade sobre a história da presença negra no Brasil que decorre dos vários registros que tem sido realizados através da participação de uma série de atores sociais, entre os quais os antropólogos, que elaboram laudos e estudos, um conjunto de entidades e órgãos governamentais. Deste modo, enfoco os termos, posições e novas configurações de saber-poder, que implicam uma realidade de realização de direitos advinda do novo jogo de lentes dirigido sobre o “passado histórico”, indagando sobre a atualização, importância e a disputa de sentido com que os diferentes setores da sociedade refletem e relacionam justiça, direito e narrativa histórica na esteira das memórias quilombolas. / This study analyzes situations involving the recognition of quilombolos (technically, descendents of runaway slaves) under article 68 of the Brazilian Federal Constitution. Starting from an ethnographic study, carried out in a local context – Morro Alto/RS – I consider the re-reading of the historical experience of slavery which has urged negro social groups onto a scenario of legal claims which, until recently, had not been foreseen by state law. I look into the social and juridical dynamics involved in the implementation of this constitutional article to see if, in normative and discursive aspects, it has encouraged lines of dialogue with the actors´(social groups´) own notions of justice and rights, allowing them to enter into national debates. I also reflect on the visibility of the historical negro presence in Brazil by consulting registers produced by a series of social actors, including anthropologists (who contribute with judicial consultancies), and a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations. I thus focus on the terms, positions and new configurations of knowledge-power implied in the present reality of rights claims. Taking into consideration the new perspectives projected onto the “historical past”, I investigate the re-enactments and the disputes of meaning with which the different sectors of society reflect on and relate with justice, law and historical narrative as filtered through the memory of quilombolas.

Esta dissertação procurou relacionar a teoria da Nova Economia Institucional e a Cliometria com o método de pesquisa em história econômica, a partir da revisão teórica das obras dos seus principais autores, Douglass North e Robert Fogel, respectivamente. Estas teorias serão relacionadas com os acontecimentos que ocorreram na história econômica do Brasil durante o século XIX, em específico no Rio Grande de Sul. Antes disso serão apresentadas diversas interpretações clássicas e modernas a respeito deste período de importantes transformações, focando a mais importante delas: a transição da escravidão para o trabalho assalariado. Por fim serão analisados dados relativos à riqueza financeira no estado do Rio Grande do Sul neste período. / This dissertation seeks to relate New Institutional Economics theory and Cliometrics with economic history research method, since the theorethical review of it main autors, Douglass North and Robert Fogel. These theories will be related with happenings which occurred during the XIXth century in Economic History of Brazil, specifically at Rio Grande do Sul state. Before it, will be presented many classic and modern interpretations about this period of important changes focusing on the most important of them: the transition from slavery to free work. At the end will be analized data relative to financial richess in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.