“CÓPULA CARNAL” E VIOLÊNCIA: RELAÇÕES ESCRAVISTAS NO BRASIL MERIDIONAL

Abstract

: The social relations that took place during slavery in Brazil have been addressed by historians whose work sees the enslaved as historical subjects. In this sense, this paper deals with a criminal prosecution from 1873, in Vila de Encruzilhada, Província de São Pedro do Rio Grande Sul, whose defendant is a slave called Martinho. The defendant was accused of abducting and the victim, a 1873. Martinho her residence carrying a pistol and a knife. Using violence means, the defendant abducted the victim and took her to a field where they had “carnal copulation”. The defendant was condemned to being whipped 200 times and carrying an iron collar on his neck for 6 months. The objec tive of this paper is to analyse the various forms of violence, both physical and symbo -lical, that appear in the prosecution and that dictated the relations in Brazil in the 1800’s. For this task the criminal prosecutions are a very rich resource for historical investiga -tion, in spite of all the limitations that come from juridic protocols. Even so, between the lines of what is registered and what is hidden, a valuable material for historical investigation is unveiled.