An occupation of slavery: the work of overseers in 19th century Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Dornelas Câmara, Bruno Augusto
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Mundos do Trabalho
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/mundosdotrabalho/article/view/86798
• topic: feitores; escravidão; sítios; engenhos; overseers; slavery; sites; mills

In Brazil and in other slave areas of the New World, the figure of the overseer was always associated with the violent treatment and punishment of the slaves. The literature usually points to these moments of tension, where the whip set the tone of the relationship. However, violent acts were not the only thing that constituted the work of these overseers. This article is an attempt to better understand the work and daily life of the men who dedicated themselves to this type of occupation. The focus given to this research are the factories of the sites of Recife (and its suburbs) and those who conducted the work in the great sugar-cane plantation in Pernambuco, throughout the nineteenth century. By studying these workers it is possible to understand the permanences, changes and transformations that this occupation has suffered over time and how this type of occupation was definitively associated with slavery.