Vida e morte escrava: um estudo sobre a mortalidade cativa na Belém oitocentista (1850-1859)

Abstract

The study of health and disease is of great importance to the history of humanity, as it is closely linked to the social, economic, political, cultural and even religious context, with meanings that go beyond their biological characteristics. This study aims to analyze captive mortality in nineteenth-century Belém, based on a survey of the main causes of this mortality in the enslaved population between 1850 and 1859, a period when three epidemics occurred in the province of Pará. The aim is to identify mortality patterns among free and slave slaves, analyze the daily health of these slaves, the spread of certain diseases that ravaged the province, the reasons for their greater exposure to these diseases, and determine whether there was any public policy or initiative on the part of the masters to treat their illnesses, given that slaves constituted the main labor force. The sources used will be the burial records of the Nossa Senhora da Soledade Cemetery, reports and speeches by the presidents of the province of Pará, the work Epidemias no Pará by Arthur Vianna, the collection of laws from the period and newspaper advertisements.