“E aí a minha bisavó venceu a cativaria”: tec(ss)itura das fontes orais e escritas em torno das comunidades quilombolas Córrego do Meio e Chácara, Paula Cândido/MG

Abstract

Weaving every single memory thread of captivity, freedom and related written sources, this work goes through slaves, masters and their descendants’ times and spaces, from the nineteenth century to the present, enabling the understanding of how the slave and post-slave São José do Barroso society (currently Paula Cândido) was formed and developed in the Córrego do Meio and Chácara quilombola surroundings. Through a microscopic analysis, part of the local elites’ movement and the role of the master families as a source of wealth are highlighted; also, slaves’ identity redrafting and uprooting processes. Taking into account slavery’s social history approach and the post-abolition period, reflection is given of the “pasts-presents” which have confirmed such reality, through the notion of paternalism, by means of a micro and macro perspectives. Social patterns built upon such bonds alternated between masters’ control and the margins of slaves’ autonomy, whose profound causes are found in the formation of captive families, the formation of family-like ties and participation in communal celebrations, religious or not. By intimately approaching masters and slaves, this pattern made it possible to negotiate the right to a minimally dignified life, from the formation of slave families to small communities by these individuals as time went by, whose memories have been recovered. From captivity to the post-abolition period, this temporal comprehension was possible mainly by listening to oral accounts, be it slaves’ or former masters’ descendants (the latter regarding only Córrego do Meio’s history), revealing the very thin line between slavery and freedom, which have reinforced an unjust and unequal reality. However, with the current changes brought about by the quilombola land registration process, it is possible to render problematic the open possibilities to break with paternal bonds. Guided by the Italian microhistory and oral history notions, this dissertation aims to contribute to the reflection on African descendants’ rights to history and memory, made possible by a process of subverting source silence – which have been conditioned by the correlation of past forces and delicate processes related to memory transmition by sensitive people. This work is aware that, in the memory wheels, both quilombola communities still have many loosen threads waiting for weavers to continue pulling together their histories and memories.