Peasant identity, racialization and citizenship in Imperial Brazil: a discussion of Guillermo Palacios' 'War of the Hornets'

Abstract

This text discusses Guillermo Palacios' paper "Peasant rebellions in Brazilian slave based society: the 'War of the Hornets' (Pernambuco, 1851-1852)", originally written in 1984. Until today Palacios' paper remains the best analyses of the rebellious movement that rose against the Imperial Decrees 797 and 798, both issued on June 18th 1851, which ordered the implementation of a national census and also the civil registration of newborns and deceased in the Empire. Those decrees became then known as the "Law of Captivity". The present discussion starts with a debate of the author's use of the concept of peasant, in its theoretical and historiographical implications; a concept that appears not only in the title of Palacios' paper, but is also crucial for his conclusions concerning the movement. Considering the recent historiographical debates about Imperial Brazil, the text deals also with the opposition presented in Palacios' conclusion, on one side his interpretation of the movement as a peasant and class based rebellion and, on the other side, the more usual understanding, by those who were contemporary to the upheaval, as a movement lead by "non whites" instilled by liberal ideas.