Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SLAVESRELIGION (Slaves of Religion: Paternalism and Resistance, Brazil.)
Période du rapport: 2022-12-01 au 2024-11-30
SLAVESRELIGION is an interdisciplinary proposal aimed at understanding the process of implementation, exploitation and perpetuation of slavery in the properties of the Luso-Brazilian Benedictine Congregation between 1750 and 1871, highlighting issues related to Gender, Race and Slavery in the Atlantic world. It also intends to analyse the resistance strategies built by enslaved men and women against the disciplinary and moralising measures of the Order of Saint Benedict. The project aims to demonstrate that this Congregation played an important role in the construction of modern slavery, transforming it into one of the richest and most powerful Slave Orders in Brazil. The Benedictines built efficient and durable strategies for managing slaves through measures designed to control female behaviour, access to freedom, and reproduction. Despite the importance of this Congregation in the construction of modern slavery, few historians have analysed its peculiarities. There are indications that this Religious Order encouraged its slaves to own slaves. Moreover, there is also evidence that they encouraged enslaved women to reproduce in exchange for benefits (especially freedom). Besides, there are suggestions that they allowed slaves to accumulate patrimony and pass it on by inheritance to their heirs. The results of this research will be disseminated through various means, such as social media, digital platforms and seminars, among others. During the research, four scientific articles and a book chapter were produced on the peculiar slave management of the Benedictines and the resistance strategies of the enslaved population, with a special focus on enslaved women.
The research revealed important results related not only to slavery, but also to the historical and cultural connections between Brazil and Africa. To achieve these objectives, the researcher has been conducting a broad reading on various aspects of slavery from a global and comparative perspective, with the aim of broadening his view of the institution, its particularities and connections with different places and historical times. The first important result was the production of two articles on slave owners. In the first article, the researcher carried out a broader exercise, discussing the concept from a global perspective, analyzing a large number of texts on the subject, from the Ancient World to the 20th century, covering various places where this practice was presented by authors of various nationalities. The second article (an offshoot of the first) aimed to delve deeper into the subject based on a comparative study of various African societies, helping the author to better understand the dynamics of African slavery and its different faces. The production of these texts helped the researcher to better understand the particularities and similarities with the slave owners found in the Benedictine documents, who also had a significant number of captives who exploited other captives on their properties in Brazil. Aiming to better understand the relations between Brazil and Africa, the researcher prepared a third article, this time focusing on gender issues and their importance in the daily life of female exploitation, but without losing sight of the strategies of resistance and refusal of slavery. This text was provided to the researcher to develop his knowledge on gender, paternalism, transgression and resistance in slave societies. All this theoretical and historiographical support helped the researcher to deepen ideas, perspectives and rework new projects and articles. A fourth article will discuss more specific questions about slavery on the Benedictine properties of Brazil, analyzing a set of data on race, gender and miscegenation on the properties of Pernambuco, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, between the 17th and 19th centuries. Finally, the researcher produced a book chapter that brings together the main results of the research, focusing on the role of the Benedictine Congregation in the process of legitimizing, perpetuating, and exploiting slaves of African origin. The objective of the chapter is also to demonstrate the historical connections between Brazil, Africa, and Europe based on the trajectory of the Order of Saint Benedict, from its origins in Portugal to its transfer to the city of Salvador, in Bahia. Christianity and the slave trade are presented in this discussion, with the aim of demonstrating the transnational and Atlantic nature of the exploitation of slave labor by Benedictine monks.
The Research will contribute to two types of results: 1. Quanti / qualitative data (organised in a Database); 2. New knowledge about slavery, resistance, race, and gender. Therefore, at the end of this research, the results will promote: Scientific impacts: debates through the production of content and publications on the role of the Church in the process of legitimising, exploiting and perpetuating slavery; reflections on the past and present in modules and courses offered, encouraging new researchers to become interested in themes such as Gender, Racism and Resistance; engagement of researchers in visibility activities for Afro-descendant communities, contributing to bring science, university and non-academic population closer together; promote the development of interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral teams united to promote Afro-descendant history and culture. Social impact: This proposal aims to adapt the research’ academic publications and research results to a wider audience, with the aim of reaching a more diverse audience through the popularisation of historical science. Through microhistories written in a more accessible language and published on our platform and social networks, the results will have a greater impact, attracting different audiences who will have access to discussions about race, gender and resistance. This platform also aims to help communities of African descent to disseminate their history and culture, giving these groups more visibility. To help feed the content of this platform, we will have our external collaborators, besides lecturers and students of the degree in African Studies. Afro-descendant groups and individuals will also be invited to contribute directly to the platform, through external collaborators. Thus, in addition to contributing to the popularisation of historical science, this proposal will connect the past and the present through the appreciation of this culture, which has ancient roots and continues to live in the daily practices of these groups: handicraft, dance, gastronomy, literature, history, between others. However, these two perspectives (Scientific and Social) should not be analysed separately. They will intertwine throughout the research, through different actions, promoting important debates, including on issues little-known by academia and the public. The existence of a complex and institutionalized Christian-based system that aimed to control the body and behaviour of enslaved women, including their ability to reproduce, is undoubtedly a novelty in current debates, which will help to attract countless readers. Other issues, no less controversial, refer to enslaved women who owned slaves, a topic that divides opinions and needs to be better debated and re-elaborated based on reflections and exchanges with different audiences. Finally, these actions, in addition to the scientific impact in different dimensions, will also contribute to the strengthening of the Afrodescendant public, demonstrating the magnitude of this proposal.