Antônio Pardo and Social Hierarchy in Nineteenth-Century Rural Brazil

ABSTRACT

The paper examines the life of Antônio Varela, born in 1805, a pardo man whose mother was a freed woman, who became captain of the National Guardo of Brazilian Imperial State, a slave master, and a major landowner in the village of Piranga, a former district of the municipality of Mariana in Minas Gerais. This paper discusses his relationships with family, god parentage, and neighbors in the area where he owned land. In doing so, it highlights the routes of social mobility and economic ascension strategies, and explores the geographically-structured quotidian sociability that circumscribed his life course. This paper presents a cartography of freedom and socioeconomic ascension, emphasizing the new spaces of sociability that enabled Varela to raise his standing in the local hierarchy.

Keywords:
Slavery; Freedom; Life Course; Social Mobility; Minas Gerais