“Mão de Luva” e “Montanha”: bandoleiros e salteadores nos caminhos de Minas Gerais no século XVIII (Matas Gerais da Mantiqueira: 1755 1786)

Abstract

This survey aims to examine the actions of armed gangs of “Mantiqueira” and “Macacu”. To do this, we built a number of assumptions that could explain the reasons behind their bandoleiros to act on a space of time in their areas. The square is the “Mantiqueira” composed of mestizos and Gypsies. Agia in the “Mantiqueira” during the early years of the decade of 1780. It was led by a gypsy named Joaquim de Oliveira, by nickname "Mountain". Possuía ingenious initiatives and is responsible for the deaths of good men of business, as Antonio Sanhudo de Araujo, who lived in Sabará. Its members eventually being arrested and sentenced in the Court of Appeal of “Rio de Janeiro”. In “sertões das Cachoeiras de Macacu” – “sertões de leste” - served the gang of smugglers headed by legendary Hand of glove. Like the "mantiqueiras," acted in the initial years of the decade of 1780. Composed by poor whites, slaves, freed and indigenous, the gang held up the loss of gold to “Rio de Janeiro”, seeking thus escape of the records and the deployments in those located nearby. In general, we believe that the search conducted by various social actors for profit and prestige, the litigation of rigging police, the geographical layout of “sertões”, the ineffectiveness of the "forbidden areas" and private interests have brought the relative success of gangs under study. Finally, we support the premise that the collective violence in “Minas setecentistas” was not exacerbated. In contrast, the occurrence of gangs was enclosed in space and time specific. Thus, political and social problems and administrative not led, inevitably, at a juncture of "violence" throughout the “capitania mineira”.