O mundo do trabalho colonial e a construção da fortaleza de São José de Macapá (1760-1775)

Abstract

In this study, we aim to analyze the world of labor in the colonial Amazon, focusing on the labor force employed in the construction of the fortification of Macapá, between 1760 and 1775. This place, strategically located between the Cabo do Norte region and the delta of the Amazon River, needed to be garrisoned from the second half of the 18th century onwards. During this period, the reforms enacted by the Portuguese Crown, at the instance of the royal secretary Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, were implemented in the Amazon valley. Among the various subjects involved in the works in Macapá, we focus on indigenous and African laborers, essential for the execution of the works. With a focus on everyday life and the working conditions of these men and women employed at the construction sites, our analysis starts with the History seen from below associated with Agnes Heller’s ideas of everyday life and Hannah Arendt’s conception of active life. As for the sources, we resorted to documents available at the Public Archive of the State of Pará and the Overseas Historical Archive (Resgate Project). Both collections fostered the understanding of the context of the object of study, through the survey and crossing of data, contained in the lines and between the lines of the papers. In the end, we find that the construction of the Fort of Macapá encompassed a wide network of villages, cities and hamlets, from where a large part of the workforce used in the construction sites came from. There, a complex network of social relationships was engendered through the multiple forms of coexistence and interaction of these subjects.