Teria sido uma transição sem traumas ? Uma análise da trajetória de Datila: uma mulher negra em busca de estratégias de inserção social no pós - abolição em Piedade do Rio Grande - MG

Abstract

By taking as a starting point the analysis of the trajectory of Maria Cecília de Jesus, the present work aims to draw attention to the social insertion strategies adopted by black men and women who chose to remain close to former captivity shortly after the abolition of slavery in Brazil and throughout the 20th century. Maria Cecília de Jesus was a black woman, born in 1905 in the community of Cruzeiro do Rio Grande (popularly known as Desbarrancado), where she lived until she got married and moved to a place called Chapada. Later, she took up residence at Fazenda da Santa Cruz , one of many farms in the region whose origins dates back to the slavery period. Cecília was a washerwoman at Fazenda de Santa Cruz, where she also practiced the art of storytelling. The stories narrated by her gave rise to the book Histórias que a Cecília contava (Stories that Cecília used to tell), organized by some people who, during their childhood, pestered her to tell stories. Later, Cecília became a kind of nursemaid, still at Fazenda de Santa Cruz, where she lived until the 1980s, when she was placed in the Lar das Velhinhas nursing home in Barbacena, a city in the state of Minas Gerais, where she died in 1984. Examining Cecília’s trajectory in light of the historiography on the subject allows us to understand several elements linked to the experience of black people after abolition, about which very little is still known. In order to understand these elements, linked to the experience of black people after abolition, we go back to the 19th century, taking into account that the freedom projects built throughout the times of captivity were decisive for the paths taken by the freedmen and their descendants after abolition. . Finally, this work examines the social insertion strategies adopted by black men and women based on the experience of captivity throughout the 20th century. This approach is the opposite of the one presented by the historian José Murilo de Carvalho when he states that the “transition from slave to free labor in Piedade do Rio Grande seems to have occurred without trauma”2 . In view of this, the place of speech of the author mentioned as a white men and member of the local elite and my place of speech as a black and poor woman and also descendant of the captives of which the author talks about are taken into account.