Cólera e gentes de cores ou o acesso aos socorros públicos no século XIX

Abstract

The prevailing ethnic diversity in the province of Grão-Pará (at the mouth of the Amazon River) during the 19th-century cholera academic is revealed in the categories recorded by physicians, travelers, and chroniclers, with various nuances in the color and ethnicity of victims. The following cholera victims were classified under terms equivalent to indigenous: caboclas, índias, and tapuias, totaling 205 individuals, while blacks included cafuzas, mamelucas, mulatas, pardas, and pretas, totaling 646; meanwhile whites totaled 184. Persons of color who died during the epidemic thus comprised 82% of the individuals buried at the Soledade Cemetery. Does cholera "choose" its victims? Is it blind towards the social conditions, color, and ethnicity of the groups it strikes? These are the key questions in relation to the 19th-century epidemic, along with the question of access to public health care in Belém do Grão-Pará, based on documents from the Pará State Archives (APEP) and the Pará Historical and Geographic Institute (IHGP).