Before Brasília: Frontier Life in Central Brazil

by Mary C. Karasch

Overview

2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Before Brasília offers an in-depth exploration of life in the captaincy of Goiás during the late colonial and early national period of Brazilian history. Karasch effectively counters the "decadence" narrative that has dominated the historiography of Goiás. She shifts the focus from the declining white elite to an expanding free population of color, basing her conclusions on sources previously unavailable to scholars that allow her to meaningfully analyze the impacts of geography and ethnography.

Karasch studies the progression of this society as it evolved from the slaving frontier of the seventeenth century to a majority free population of color by 1835. As populations of indigenous and African captives and their descendants grew throughout Brazil, so did resistance and violent opposition to slavery. This comprehensive work explores the development of frontier violence and the enslavements that ultimately led to the consolidation of white rule over a majority population of color, both free and enslaved.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826357625
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	12/01/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Mary C. Karasch is a professor emerita of history at Oakland University. She now lives in Tempe, Arizona. Her 1987 book Slave Life in Rio de Janeiro, 1808-1850 won the prestigious Albert J. Beveridge Award from the American Historical Association.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xvii

Part 1 Contacts and Conquests

Chapter 1 Into the "Heart of Brazil": Landscapes of Contact and Decimation 3

Chapter 2 The Indigenous Nations of Central Brazil 33

Chapter 3 Bandeiras and Entradas: The Invaders of Central Brazil 63

Chapter 4 Indigenous Warfare and Peacemaking 95

Part 2 Colonial Society: Whites, Pardos, and Blacks

Chapter 5 "Good Order": Structures of Empire 129

Chapter 6 The White Propertied Elites of the Captaincy of Goiás 159

Chapter 7 "Masters of the Dance": Enslaved Africans and Crioulos 185

Part 3 Points of Contact and Culture Change

Chapter 8 People of the Holy Spirit: Christians and Their Sacred Spaces 215

Chapter 9 Shadows in the Night: Women and Gender Relations 247

Chapter 10 Defenders of the Conquest and Useful Vassals: The Free People of Color 273

Conclusion: Reflections on Frontiers/Borderlands of Central Brazil 299

Appendix A Indigenous Nations of Central Brazil 305

Appendix B Censuses 311

Appendix C Colonial Churches and Lay Brotherhoods in the Captaincy of Goiás 326

Glossary 329

Notes 331

Bibliography 387

Index 407

Editorial Reviews

"Historian Mary Karasch, author of the award-winning Slave Life in Rio de Janeiro, 1808-1850, has published a new book on the history of central Brazil that promises to be as influential as her first work. . . . Thoroughly researched, well-documented, and clearly written."—Mariana C. Françozo, The Americas

"Mary Karasch has a knack for writing landmark books. . . . Historians of Brazil's interior will rely on [Before Brasília] for years to come."

—Journal of Latin American Studies

From the Publisher