ABSTRACT
This paper analyzes the interactions between historical and literary narratives in the Province of Grão-Pará throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, involving the figure of the defector Jacob Patacho. Some of the actions of the so-called cangaceiro das águas (bandit of the waters), allegedly responsible for "terrorizing" the populations residing in the rivers and streams of the Amazon region in the early 1830s, exceeded the official and popular memory of the time, coming to literature and history books. In general, these narratives and memories were linked to the stigma of "violence" and "crime." This apparently unpretentious association contributed to settle a specific view, marked by a sense of fear, of the poor and the slave populations in Pará during the Second Empire in Brazilian historiography.
Keywords:
marginal; fear; History; Literature; nineteenth century.