João Henriques de Lima Barreto:

the political engagement of a black typographer in the abolition period

Abstract

Father of Afonso Henriques, one of the most important Brazilian intellectuals, the typographer João Henriques de Lima Barreto (1853-1922) has been currently presented by scholarship as a free, submissive and dependent black worker, almost completely deprived of agency in his professional achievements and political choices. My intention here is to present another perspective regarding João Henriques, eliciting his agency in the process of becoming a qualified worker who has earned respect and recognition from his employers and professional colleagues. Through the analysis of his experiences and in the light of Thompsian references, I intend to present other feasible interpretations for paternalistic and sponsorship relationships which challenge the reifying effectiveness of the domination of black people who were born free in Brazilian enslaving society during the 19th Century. Thus, I propose to analyse João Henriques’s life story, emphasizing his professional and educational training, his career as a typographer in the National Press and his political activity as a liberal monarchist engaged in associations of workers in Rio de Janeiro, during the last two decades of the imperial period. In addition to the classic work by Francisco de Assis Barbosa, ‘A vida de Lima Barreto’, records published by press in Rio de Janeiro were substantial sources of research.