Estratégias de poder e de liberdade nos conflitos da Parahyba: o governador, uma mulher, um escravo e dois padres (1769-1784).

Abstract

In the city of Parahyba, in 1769, a woman was sentenced to prison charged with being the mentor of an intrigue against the Captain-General of Parahyba, Jerônimo José de Melo e Castro. Quitéria Bandeira de Melo became the key figure of the charges. In this paper, we discuss the power strategies experienced in Real Captaincy of Parahyba, starting from the conflicts between Quitéria and Captain-General Melo e Castro. Based on a historiographical analysis about Parahyba during the administration of Jerônimo José de Melo e Castro, we tried to identify the disputes between him and Bandeira de Melo‟s family. From handwritten documents dated by late eighteenth century, we investigate the complaints and found characters linked to the intrigue against Captain-General Melo e Castro: the priest Antônio Bandeira de Melo, Quitéria‟s brother, the priest of the city, Antônio Soares Barbosa, and the slave of Bandeira de Melo‟s family, Constantino were cited. All of them were charged of planning an intrigue against the life of Melo e Castro. Building this research, we analyze a set of handwritten documents from Real Captaincy of Parahyba and from Captaincy of Pernambuco. In order to set a problem in these documents, we read the theoretical material from New Cultural History and got the definition of social representation by Roger Chartier. Moreover, we linked our material to the field researches on women history at colonial period.