Banca de DEFESA: DIONISIO TITO DE BARROS NETO

“The skin I inhabit”: black identity in the clothing of enslaved people in Recife (1825-1835)

Clothing, Recife, Enslaved, Society, Empire

The main objective of the research is to investigate how black men and women subjected to slavery in the city of Recife, between 1825 and 1835, experienced their histories through clothing/clothes/clothing and adornments, in order to understand how these worked as social markers and elements. escape strategies. Furthermore, it is also a way of understanding how subjects subjected to slavery (re)constructed these practices in a new context and constructed their identities through opposition to other individuals. For this, the research uses travellers' reports, advertisements from the Escravos Fugidos e Fugidas de Escravos section of the Diário de Pernambuco newspaper as primary sources to support understanding, and municipal positions and Portuguese legislation as secondary. Clothes and adornments are perceived as elements that demarcated the social positions of subjects, enslaved or not, being an important element in a hierarchical society such as that of Recife in the first half of the 19th century.