O ouro branco abre caminho: o algodão e a modernização do espaço urbano da Cidade da Parahyba (1850-1924)

The present research deals with the modernization process of the Cidade da Parahyba2, between 1850 and 1924, and its relation with the cotton economy, which represented the main source of wealth accumulation for both the private and the public sectors throughout the First Republic. This study on urban history was developed by focusing on the understanding of the city s spatial formation, and despite its emphasis on the economic aspects involved, other factors that also contribute to the development of the social life were not put aside. The modernization process of the Cidade da Parahyba was also analyzed during the period established for the study according to a chronological and thematic approach that established comparisons with the financial situation of the State, whenever this was necessary, with special attention to the contribution of the cotton economy to the State´s revenues. It was possible to detect a lack of financial help and loans from the federal and municipal administrations for finishing several public works already underway in the capital, since the federal funds allocated to the State of Parahyba do Norte were rather employed in emergency works against droughts and in agricultural development. One can then conclude that the financial resources required for the urban interventions were withdrawn from the State s treasury itself, resources that were collected mainly from activities such as cotton exportation and cotton trading. Another factor shows the interdependence between the urban remodeling and the cotton economy: during the years marked by great droughts or by hard plagues on the cotton plantations, cotton production decreased, as well as the State s finances. The first measures taken by the State s administrators were to halt all projects of urban remodeling in progress in the Cidade da Parahyba, which was, clearly, the most privileged city by the State s presidents during the period analyzed. 2 The city of João Pessoa was named Cidade da Parahyba, a designation that remained until September 1930, when it received its present-day name in order to pay homage to the president of the State, João Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, murdered in the city of Recife in August of that same year. At that time, the State of Paraíba was known as Parahyba do Norte. Since this work is limited to a period of time comprised within the First Republic, the names employed respect the terms used in those days

Escravidão na Vila do Príncipe, província do Rio Grande do Norte (1850/1888)

This dissertation presents a study on the slave population of Vila do Príncipe, from 1850 to 1888, based on the judicial and notarial collection of hand written documents as well as on the Reports of Presidents of the Province of Rio Grande do Norte. The issue that drives the research relates to the reproduction of slavery in a region of cattle breeding colonization. Therefore, the research aims to understand how in a peripheral socio-economic place (in Vila do Príncipe, cattle breeding Seridó) after the prohibition of the African slave trade, the slave relationships subsisted and structured themselves. In the sense, the research analyzed the dynamics of socio-economic slave units and their relationship with space, ownership structure and the slave family.

Contando o passado, tecendo a saudade: a construção simbólica do engenho açucareiro em Jose Lins do Rego (1919-1943)

In this work I have searched the symbolical sense of a specific place. I have started from the theoretical assumption that places are social relations resulting from material and symbolical conditions developed in a certain time and by certain factors. In this sense, I have analyzed the symbolical aspect of sugar plantation from some literary works created by the writer José Lins do Rego from the state of Paraíba. I intend to analyze the symbolical dimension senses, values and images used by this writer to show the sugar plantation. Giving special attention to the works from the named cycle of sugar plantation , I have searched for the senses and meanings used in José Lins do Rego literary discourse to create a fictional sugar plantation, showing this place in a specific way. Based in cultural history, I have used several sources: literary works, prefaces of books, memory works, journalistic works, letters written by intellectual men and history books. My time of analysis is from 1919 the beginning of José Lins do Rego s intellectual activity - until 1943 publication of Fogo Morto, last literary work that I have analyzed. In symbolical terms, what is sugar plantation, this place that has totally touched José Lins do Regos life and literary work? That was the structural question that has determined the present research