This article endeavors to describe the terror that engulfed the white inhabitants of the city of Rio de Janeiro at the time of the growing exodus of West Africans from the city of Salvador, state of Bahia, in a move to Rio de Janeiro, especially after the defeat of the Malê uprising in 1835. It also discusses the question of political identities constructed by West Africans, concealed behind a screen of "ethnic" identities, generally very badly handled by historians. Furthermore, it discusses the fear of "polarization" of the slave protest that was felt by slave owners of Rio in the eighteen thirties, within the larger picture of inconformity with the conservative policies enacted in the Regency.
Minas Africans; Malê uprising; ethnic identity; political identity; Negroes