Territorialization and work: the role of the villagers of Ferradas in the process of territorial occupation and exploration, in the South of Bahia (19th century)

Abstract

In the early 19th century, a context in which there was growing interest in expanding the interior areas of colonial and later imperial Brazil, indigenous policy was implemented in southern Bahia to meet government demands regarding indigenous labor and their lands. In this context, the São Pedro de Alcântara settlement, established in Ferradas in 1814, became an important source of indigenous labor for the construction and maintenance of the Ilhéus-Vitória road. The villagers also worked on the farms surrounding the settlement, with special attention to their work in the incipient cocoa plantation. Based on the treatment of various sources, especially correspondence exchanged between local and provincial authorities, the objective of this article is to understand how the territorialized men and women acted in the demands regarding the organization of labor in southern Bahia during the 19th century.