Rebeldia impressa: crime e insurreição escrava nas páginas da "Gazeta de Notícias" e "Diario do Brazil" (1875-1888)

Abstract

The overall objective of this research is to examine the crimes and acts of insubordination committed by slaves that proliferated in the 1870s and 1880s in Brazil during the final years of the slave system. The press is the primary source and subject of this study, since, contrary to the notion—perpetuated by the literature on the final years of slavery—that newspapers at the end of the century did not report on slave uprisings out of fear of inciting panic among the free population of the then-Empire, this research will seek to show how such actions by enslaved people made their way into the pages of the press in news reports, articles, and other content. Based on an analysis of newspapers such as Diário do Brazil and Gazeta de Notícias, from the perspective of Social History, this research aims to understand how these newspapers’ coverage of slave crimes and acts of insubordination—both quantitatively and qualitatively—was distributed within the newspaper’s pages, how frequently they were mentioned in each issue, what role they played in journalistic discussions regarding the abolition of slavery, and whether they revealed aspects of the daily lives of enslaved people and the ways they organized to combat slavery.