Mortality in the Far South of Brazil: Free and Slave Population in - PDF document

Mortality in the Far South of Brazil: Free and Slave Population in the parish of Madre de Deus de Porto Alegre , Brazil (1772 ─ 1854)  Ana Silvia Volpi Scott  Dario Scott  Very few studies on health, disease and death in the past have been published in Brazil in the area of historical demography. Historian demographers have paid more attention to the study of marital status and fertility than to the question of mortality, a situation that is due, among other reasons, to the fact that the under-recording of deaths was more common than that for other vital events. The deaths of persons were not always recorded at the parish, often because of the great distances between the parish church and the place of death. This communication consists of a presentation and analysis of data from death records of the free and slave population between 1772 and 1854 in the territory then known as parish of Madre de Deus de Porto Alegre, in the Captaincy of Rio Grande de São Pedro (today this area corresponds approximately to the State of Rio Grande do Sul), located in the southernmost Portuguese territories in the Americas, later to become part of the Empire of Brazil. Specifically, we outline and analyze the profile of death records by legal status (free and slave population), gender, age and cause of death. This parish gave birth to the city of Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul. Therefore, it is a parish with urban characteristics. Since the period when Brazil was the Portuguese colony in the Americas and, later, during the country's imperial period (between 1822 and 1889), the norms for drawing up parish records (including those for deaths) were defined and standardized in the First Constitutions of the Archbishopric of Bahia (1707). Regarding the information to be included in death records, the Constitutions defined, in Title XLIX, that all parish churches must have a book for entering the names of the deceased. Said records should be entered in the book on the day of death or at least within three days following death 1 . The regulations also determined the manner of drawing up entries: "On such-and-such day of such-and-such month in such-and-such year, N. Priest, Deacon or Sub-deacon; or N. husband, or wife, of N. widower or widow of N., or son, or daughter of N. in the district of N. or of such- and-such Church, or stranger, of such-and-such age (if easily  The presented results are part of the Research Project entitled "Family and Society in Southern Brazil (1772 ─ 1872)”, coordinated by Ana Silvia Volpi Scott. The project has financial support from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, through Selection Processes, a Productivity Scholarship.  University of Campinas(UNICAMP) - Brazil  University of Campinas(UNICAMP) - Brazil 1 Vide, Sebastião Monteiro da. Constituições Primeiras do Arcebispado da Bahia / feitas e ordenadas pelo ilustríssimo e reverendissimo D. Sebastião Monteiro da Vide. Brasília: Senado Federal, Conselho Editorial, 2011. 1

determined) with all or such-and-such Sacraments, or without Sacraments, died. He or she was buried at this or that Church; left a will in which he or she determined that so many masses should be said for his or her soul and that such-and-such Offices be said, or died having left no will or was known to be poor and therefore buried without fees" (Title XLIX - How entries of deaths should be drawn up, 831, p. 292). 2 According to this model, records should inform, beyond legal status (separated books for free and slave population), the date of death, name and place of birth of the deceased, age, marital status or parents, whether the deceased had received the last sacraments, whether the person had left a will and had determined masses and offices to be said for her or his soul " (Title XLIX - How entries of deaths should be drawn up, 831, p. 292). Further information could also be recorded, such as occupation of the deceased and, titles or military ranks (especially for the free population). Although the Constitutions did not require the cause of death to be stated, the cause was usually mentioned in the records of some Brazilian parishes as of the late 18th century. For the Madre de Deus the cause of death was informed for almost 90% of the registers. During the nineteenth century this percentage is still higher. In any case, considering the laws set down in the Constitutions, it is clear that the quality and details of the record relied heavily on the zeal of the priest who drew it up, and the social status of the deceased and / or his/her family in local society. This meant that some entries were quite detailed while others showed serious lacunas in the information provided. But before we discuss our results we will make a brief presentation of the parish and the environment surrounding it during the period being studied. In other words, we situate that parish in the context of recent regional historiographical production, a position that has aided in the revision of some of the traditionally accepted postulates regarding the region’s colonial and imperial past. 3 The “Mainland" (Continente) of Rio Grande de São Pedro The recent historiographical production on Southern Brazil includes works that show different facets of the society that settled in the southern frontier areas in the 1700s and early 1800s. Specifically in regard to the demography of the region during the colonial period, we could recall studies by Fabio Kühn that showed compelling findings from his use of confessional rolls and extant census results for the last two decades of the 18th century. In his work, Kühn analyzes the 2 VIDE, Sebastião Monteiro da. Constituições Primeiras do Arcebispado da Bahia / feitas e ordenadas pelo ilustríssimo e reverendissimo D. Sebastião Monteiro da Vide. Brasília: Senado Federal, Conselho Editorial, 2011. Vol. 79. 3 The production by this generation of young historians is represented in the collective work entitled Capítulos de História do Rio Grande do Sul . See complete reference at the end. (Grijó, Kühn et al. , 2004). Also of fundamental importance is História Geral do Rio Grande do Sul (5 volumes), which covers the colonial, imperial and republican periods, under the general direction of Nelson Boeira and Tau Golin. 2

formation of society in the southernmost regions of Portuguese America. One of his most significant contributions is the importance he gives to the notable presence of slaves of African origin, even since the earliest times. This perception contradicts the more traditional view which held that slave labor in those regions was relatively rare (Kühn, 2004). By making use of sources such as inventories and wills, Helen Osorio also calls attention to the complexity of society in Brazil’s southernmost areas, in her analysis of the region of Rio Grande de São Pedro between the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. Her study shows that, contrary to the view most held in traditional historiography, according to which large landholdings devoted exclusively to livestock were predominant, the reality of the populations in the region was not so simple. Her analysis shows that economic activities consisted of a very diverse and complex organization, composed of farmers who planted as well as small landholders and shop owners who treated and sold meat (Osorio, 2007). Figure 1 – Map of the territory of Rio Grande de São Pedro Source: Bell, 1998, from Farinatti, 2010: 69 The results of these studies bring up questions about the demographic behavior of populations that occupied the region. Occupation was characterized by specific aspects, related to realities such as land disputes between Portugal and Spain and the experience of colonization by 3