Uma trágedia em três partes: o motim dos pretos da Laura em 1839

Abstract

On the 12th of June, 1839, a number of slaves on board the brig-schooner Laura Segunda, which had earlier left Pernambuco en-route to Maranhão, mutinied off the coast of Ceará, killing six people: the captain; the boatswain; the pilot; two of the sailors and a passenger. After landing on the beach at Iguape, the slaves were captured and nine of them charged and taken to be prosecuted in Fortaleza, where six were sentenced to death, one to life imprisonment with forced-labour, yet another to being whipped and forced to go around in irons, and the last acquitted. The trials were summary in nature, demonstrating the need for a prompt and exemplary punishment of those responsible for the "horrendous attack". The present research aims to examine the mutiny and the various events which surrounded the negro slaves on board the Laura. To this end we propose examining the system of cabotage shipping carried out between the North and Northeast of Brazil, in particular that from Pará to Pernambuco, in an attempt to understand the work environment of the slave-sailors on the Laura Segunda. In addition, we wish to investigate and detail the various movements which occurred during the 1830s and which fostered a climate of political and social instability in Brazil, paving the way for various acts of rebellion by the slaves, of which the mutiny on the Laura Segunda was one. The memory of the mutiny and the events surrounding the negros on board the Laura remained alive in Fortaleza for some considerable time. We plan to arrive at an appreciation of the meaning of these events and how they were appropriated by Ceará society, and in particular by the slaves.