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Militão and The Guerreiros: Local Feuds, Long Memories, andBrazil's Struggle to Control the São Francisco River

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2015

Elizabeth W. Kiddy
Elizabeth W. Kiddy*
Affiliation:
Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania
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Extract

Between 1842 and 1848, a violent conflict erupted on the banks of the SãoFrancisco River in nordieastern Brazil. Militão Plácido de França Antunesand his faction declared war on the family of Captain Bernardo JoséGuerreiro. Both families were based in the river town of Pilão Arcado, butthe fighting spread to the nearby town of Sento-Sé, and by 1848 violence hadengulfed the entire region from Barra to Juazeiro (see Figures 1 and 2).Bands of armed men loyal to Militão roamed the streets and attacked thehouseholds of people they considered to be on the side of the Guerreiros.Many people were killed, and others fled the region altogether. The violenceended only after Militão's faction killed Guerreiro's last adult son onAugust 1, 1848. Although a family feud in the backlands was not unusual,this fight resonated with coastal lawmakers who, in Brazil's Second Empire,had been looking toward conquering the west and consolidating their own vastterritory. The reports of wrenching violence in the backlands, unchecked bythe rule of law, represented the deepest fears of the coastal elite and madethe need to conquer the Brazilian interior even more urgent.

Type
2013 Clah Luncheon Address
Information
The Americas , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , July 2013 , pp. 9 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2013

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References

* right College for providing funds for travel to research this article, Stephen Mech for helping me to make the maps, Fouad Kalouche for his detailed comments on anearlier version of the article, Brodwyn Fischer for her comments on the conference paper that preceded it, and the anonymous reviewers at The Americas for their close reading and helpful suggestions.

1. I first encountered the story in Lins, Wilson, O mèdio Sao Francisco: uma sociedade de pastores jjucr-reiros, 3rd ed., Brasiliana 377 (Sào Paulo: Companhia Nacional do Livro, 1983), pp. 44–55;Google Scholar Rocha, Geraldo, O Rio S. Francisco: fator precipuo da existencia do Brasil, 3rd ed., Brasiliana 184 (Sào Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1983), p. 36.Google Scholar Lins also wrote a novel about the feud, Militao sem remorso (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Record, 1980). I also came across the story in primary documentation; most of my account here is based on the 1862 debate in the Chamber of Deputies between Fernandes da Cunha and Joào José de Oliveira Jun-qucira Junior and other primary sources. See Anais do Camâra dos Snrs. Deputados [hereafter Anais.Dcp.], August 19 and 20, in particular the discourses of deputies Joaquim Jerónimo Fernandes da Cunha and Joào José de Oliveira Junqueira, pp. 127–178 of appendix.

2. On the idea of nation as an imagined entity, see the foundational study of Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991).Google Scholar See also the excellent volumes on nationalism in Latin America and Brazil: Sara Castro-Klarén and John Charles Chasteen, eds., Beyond Imagined Communities: Reading and Writing the Nation in Nineteenth Century Latin America (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2003); and Nava, Carmen and Lauerhass, Ludwig, eds., Brazil in the Making: Facets of National Identity (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).Google Scholar These studies, however, do not examine the question of territoriality in the creation of national identities.

3. See Ricupero, Bernardo, O romantismo e a idéia de naçâo no Brasil (1830–1870), (Sào Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2004);Google Scholar and Augusto Pádua, José, Um sopro de destruiçâo: pensamento político e crítica ambiental no Brasil escravista, 1786–1888, 2nd ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zaher Editor, 2004), pp. 23–51.Google Scholar

4. See Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius’s essay, which won an award from the Instituto Histórico Geográfico Brasileiro [hereafter IHGB] in the early nineteenth century. Martius, Von, “How the History of Brazil Should Be Written,” in Perspectives on Brazilian History, Burns, Bradford E., ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967).Google Scholar

5. Sahlins, Peter, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. Ibid., pp. 7–8.

7. Ibid., p. 9.

8. Nunes Leal, Victor, Coroneltsmo: The Municipality and Representative Government in Brazil (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1977), pp. 1–3;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Isaura, Maria de Queiroz, Pereira, O mandonismo local na vida politica brasileira e outras ensaios (Sào Paulo: Editora Alfa-Omega, 1976);Google Scholar and Heráclio, André Rêgo, do, Familia e coroneltsmo no Brasil: uma historia de poder (Sào Paulo: A Girafa Editora, 2008).Google Scholar

9. See Graham’s, Richard foundational study on this center-periphery relationship among the Brazilian elite during the Brazilian Empire in Patronage and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil(Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1990).Google Scholar

10. Bieber, Judy, Power, Patronage, and Political Violence: State Building on a Brazilian Frontier, 1822–1889 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999), pp. 4–5.Google Scholar See also Pang, Eul-Soo and Seckinger, Ron L., “The Mandarins of Imperial Brazil,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 14:2 (March 1972), pp. 215–244.Google Scholar

11. José Barbosa, Alexandre Sobrinho, Lima, ed. Documentos do Arquivo Público Estadual e da Biblioteca Pública do estado [Pernambuco] sobre a comarca do Sào Francisco, Documentos do Arquivo, Vols. 4 and 5 (Recife: η.p., 1950), pp. Ixxvii-lxxviii, 437.Google Scholar

12. See Wanderley Pinho, Josâe, Cotegipe e seu tempo. Primeira phase 1815–1867, Brasiliana 85 (Sào Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1937).Google Scholar

13. de Sá Menezes, Jayme, Fernandes da Cunha: a vida do senador (Salvador, Bahia: Biblioteca da Fun-daçâo Joâo Fernandes da Cunha, 1997), pp. 15–37.Google Scholar

14. Geraldo Rocha suggests that patriots in the Recôncavo region, in the hope of enlisting some of the sertanejos to their cause, had started a rumor in the backlands that the Portuguese were on their way to attempt to overthrow the young Brazilian state. He suggests also that the rumor caused some of Militào'’s aggression against the Guerreiros. Rocha, O Rio S. Francisco, p. 35.

15. Discourse of Deputy Fernandes da Cunha, August 19, 1862, Anais.Dcp., p. 131.

16. Alexandre José Barbosa Lima Sobrinho, Documentos do Arguivo Público Estadual, pp. 305, 315,319.

17. Geraldo Rocha, O Rio S. Francisco, pp. 26–27. The Casa das Pedras was one of the two vast cattle estates (the other was the infamous Casa do Torre) along the Sao Francisco during the colonial period.

18. Alexandre José Barbosa Lima Sobrinho, Documentos do Arguivo Público Estadual, pp. 499–523.

19. Lins, Wilson, O medio Sâo Francisco, pp. 44—45;Google Scholar on Militâo’s family see Elisangela Oliveira Ferreira, “Entre vazantes, caatingas e serras: trajetórias familiares e uso social do espaço no sertào do Sào Francisco, no século XIX” (Doctoral thesis, Universidade Federal da Bahia, 2008).

20. Discourse of Deputy Fernandes da Cunha, August 19, 1862, Anais.Dep., p. 129. See also Wilson Lins, O mèdio Sào Francisco, pp. 46–47.

21. Letter from Antonio d’Albuquerque e Mello Montenegro and Sebastiâo da Silva Gomes to the president of the province, September 17, 1837. Arquivo Publico do Estado da Bahia [hereafter APEB], Seçào Colonial e Provincial [hereafter SCP], Presidência da Provincia [hereafter PP], Maço 1377 (Pilào Arcado, 1828-1848). On nineteenth- century elections and electoral violence see Judith Bieber, Power, Patronage, and Political Violence, pp. 80–89; and Richard Graham, Patronage and Politics, pp. 100–121.

22. Discourse of Fernandes da Cunha, Deputy, August 19, 1862, Anais.Dep., p. 129 of appendix.Google Scholar

23. Discourse of Joào, Deputy de Oliveira Junqueira, José, August 20, 1862, Anais.Dcp., p. 172 Google Scholar of appendix. In the early twentieth-century accounts of Lins and Rocha, the story was reversed—the Guerrciros became executors of Castelo Branco’s estate and Militào was outraged at the slight. According to their accounts, a shouting match erupted in the meeting of the town council and Guerreiro slapped Militào in the face, knocking off his top hat and irrevocably damaging his honor. Lins, Wilson, O Mèdio Sào Francisco, pp. 48–54;Google Scholar Rocha, Geraldo, O Rio S. Francisco, pp. 34–39.Google Scholar

24. Discourse of Deputy Fernandes da Cunha, August 19, 1862, Anais.Dcp., p. 129 of appendix. Da Cunha points out that the position of captain major was held by his great-grandfather and his grandfather, who then passed it down to his uncle.

25. Antonio Joaquim da Costa to the president of the province of Bahia, September, 27, 1842, APEB, SCP-PP, Maço 1442 (Sento-Sé, 1833–1889).

26. Falla que recitou o presidente da provincia da Bahia, o conselheiro Joaquim José Pinheiro de Vas-concellos, n'abertura da Assemblèa Legislativa da mesma provincia em 2 de fevereiro de 1843 (Salvador, Bahia: Typ. de J. A. Portclla e Companhia, 1842 [1843 was intended]), p. 5. Accessed through the Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network, Projeto de Imogens de Publicaçôes Oficiáis Brasileiras [hereafter CRLGRN].

27. Antonio Joaquim da Costa to the president of the province, September 1842, APEB, SCP-PP, Maço 1422 (Sento-Sé 1833–1889).

28. Report from Lieutenant Colonel Antonio de Albuquerque e Mello Montenegro to the president of the province, August 24, 1843, APEB, SCP-PP, Maço 1377, 1843.

29. Antonio de Albuquerque e Mello Montenegro to the president of the province, March 12, 1844, APEB, SCP-PP, Maço 1257 (Barra 1824–1889).

30. Falla que recitou o presidente da provincia da Bahia, o conselheiro Joaquim José Pinheiro de Vas-concellos, n’abertura da Assemblea Legislativa da mesma provincia em 2 de fevereiro de 1844 (Bahía: Typ. de L. A. Portella e Companhia, 1844), p. 4, accessed through CRLGRN.

31. Falla que recitou o presidente da provincia da Bahia, o conselheiro Antonio Ignacio d’Azevedo, n’abertura da Assemblèa Legislativa da mesma provincia em 2 de fevereiro de 1847 (Bahia: Typ. do Guaycurú de D. Guedes Cabrai, 1847), p. 4, accessed through CRLGRN.

32. Discourse of Fernandes da Cunha, Deputy, August 19, 1862, Anais.Dcp., p. 134 of appendix.Google Scholar

33. Rclatório 1848, pelo presidente da provincia dezembargador Joào José de Moura, pp. 4–6, accessed through CRLGRN.

34. Falla que recitou o presidente da provincia da Bahia, o dezembargador Joào José de Moura Maga-lhàes, n'abertura da Assemblèa Legislativa da mesma provincia em 25 de março de 1848 (Bahia: Typ. de Joào Alves Portella, 1848), p. 4, accessed through CRLGRN.

35. Josâe Wanderlcy Pinho, Cotegipe e sen tempo. Primeira phase, pp. 60, 558–559.

36. Letter from Antonio Pinto Telles and other councilmen to the president of the province, June 1, 1848. APEB, SCP-PP, Maço 1422 (Sento-Sé 1833–1889).

37. Falla que recitou o presidente da provincia da Bahia, o dezembargador conselheiro Francisco Gonçalves Martins, n’abertura da Assemblèa Legislativa da mesma provincia em 4 de julho de 1849 (Bahia: Typ. de Salvador Moitinho, 1849), p. 5, accessed through CRLGRN.

38. Discourse of Fernandes da Cunha, Deputy, August 19, 1862, Anais.Dcp., p. 141 of appendix.Google Scholar

39. Wilson Lins, O mèdio Sao Francisco, pp. 54–55.

40. Bernardo Ricupero, O romantismo, pp. 128–129; Silvia, F. Figueirôa, de M., “Associativismo científico no Brasil,. O Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro como espaço institucional para as ciencias raturais durante o sedilo XIX,” in Mundialización de la ciencia y cultura nacional, Lafuentc, A., Elcan, A., and Ortega, M.L., cds. (Madrid: Doce Calles, 1993), pp. 452–454.Google Scholar

41. Silvia Figueirôa, “Associativismo científico no Brasil,” pp. 450, 454.

42. Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen (also known as “O Amador do Brasil”), “Memorial organico: ofer-ecido à naçâo,” Cuanabara 1 (1851), pp. 356–390, 422–432; Bernardo Ricupero, O romantismo, pp. 130–131; and Schwartz, Stuart B., “Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen: Diplomat, Patriot, Historian,” Hispanic American Historical Review 47:2 (May 1967), pp. 188–191.Google Scholar

43. Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, “Memorial,” p. 359.

44. Ibid., p. 367.

45. Ibid., pp. 367–70, 386, 428–431.

46. “Auto de Veriaçào,” July 21, 1823, in Alexandre José Barbosa Lima Sobrinho, Documentos do Arguivo Publico Estadual, pp. 437–439; Anais.Dcp., 12 July 1830.Google Scholar

47. Anais.Dep., July 19, 1850.

48. Anais.Dep., May 10, 1873, p. 49

49. Anais.Dep., August 8, 1856, pp. 106–107.

50. Anais.Dep., June 16, 1857, pp. 16–17.

51. Anais do Senado [hereafter Anais.Sen.], July 31, 1873, p. 208.

52. Anais.Dep., June 16, 1857, p. 17; Anais.Dep., May 10, 1873, pp. 48–49.

53. Discourses of Deputies Joaquim Jerónimo Fernandes da Cunha and Joào José de Oliveira Jun-queira, August 19 and 20, 1862, Anais.Dep., pp. 127–178. On Junqueira’s relationship to Cotegipe, see Wanderley PinhoJosâe, Cotegipe e seti tempo. Primeira phase, 1815–1867, pp. 568–571; and Richard Graham, Patronage and Politics, pp. 161, 243–244.

54. Various sources, even contemporary sources, give different dates for Militào’s death. The date I trust most is drawn from his own inventàrio, December 20, 1860, in Elisangela Oliveira Ferreira, “Entre vazantes, caatingas e serras,” p. 246, n.84.

55. Anais.Dep., August 20, 1862, p. 147 of appendix.

56. Ibid., p. 172.

57. Henrique Guilherme Fernando Halfeld, Relatório concernente a exploraçao do rio de S. Francisco: desde a Cachoeira da Pirapora ate o Oceano Atlàntico durante os annos de 1852, 1853, and 1854 (Santo Antonio de Parahybuna: n.p., 1854); Halfeld, , Atlas e relat ório concernente a exploraçao do Rio Sào Francisco desde a cachoeira de Pirapora ao Oceano Atlàntico (Rio de Janeiro: Eduardo Rensberg, 1860);Google Scholar and Emmanuel, Liais, Hydrographie du haut San-Francisco et du rio das Velhas: ou, Résultats au point de vue hydrographique d’un voyage effectue dans la province de Minas-Geraes (Rio de Janeiro: B. L. Gernier, 1865).Google Scholar

58. Frederick Hartt, Charles, Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil (Boston: Fields, Osgood, and Co., 1870), p. 275.Google Scholar

59. Manoel, Francisco de Araújo, Alvares, “Relatório da viagem de exploraçào dos Rios das Velhas c S. Francisco feita no vapor ‘Saldanha Marinho,’” Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geogràfico Brasileiro 39 (1876).Google Scholar

60. Anais.Dep., August 9, 1870.

61. Anais.Dep., May 5, 1873.

62. Relatório do Ministerio do Imperio, “Imperio 1872-1A,” pp. 4—5, accessed through CRLGDP. Oliveira was also a protege of Cotegipe. See Richard Graham, Patronage and Politics, p. 179.

63. Anais.Dep., January 2, 1873, p. 3.

64. Jornal do Commercio, 53:123 (May 4, 1873), Section 1, p. 3.

65. Anais.Dep., May 17, 1873, pp. 112–118. Quotation is from Deputy Tristào de Alencar Araripe of Ceará, p. 115.

66. Anais.Sen., July 22, 1873, p. 137.

67. Anais.Sen., July 30, 1873, p. 192.

68. Ibid., p. 195.

69. Anais.Sen., July 31, 1873, p. 208.

70. Anais.Sen., July 30, 1873, p. 202.

71. Ibid. In fact a new round of bloody fighting in Xique-Xique and Pilào Arcado was being reported at exactly this time by the municipal councils, this time between two groups known as the Marròcs and the Pedras (the latter led by Manuel Martiniano de Franca Antunes, a relative of MilitSo). In contrast to the 1840s war, the violence this time was linked directly to party politics—the Marròcs were conservatives and the Pedras group liberals. Report from the town council of Xique-Xique to the president of the province, October 6, 1872, APEB SCP-PP, Maòo 1279-1 (Xique-Xique).

72. The discussions can be found in Anais.Sen, 1873, vol. 4, pp. 192–220; quoted text is on p. 205.

73. Ibid., p. 212.

74. Burton, Richard F., Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil; with a Full Account of the Cold and Diamond Mines. Also, Canoeing Down 1500 Miles of the Great River Sào Francisco, from Sabara to the Sea (New York: Greenwood Press, 1869), p. 235.Google Scholar

75. Paranhas Montenegro, Thomaz G., A provincia e a navejjaçào do Rio Sào Francisco (Bahia: Imprensa Econòmica, 1873), pp. 42—44.Google Scholar

76. “Nova provincia do Rio S. Francisco,” Jornal do Commercio 52:195 (July 15, 1873), p. 2.

77. “A provincia de S. Francisco,” Jornal do Commercio 52:214 (August 3, 1873), p. 2.

78. In fact Thomaz Montenegro, who wrote the book defending the creation of the Sào Francisco province, spends an entire chapter criticizing Fernandes da Cunha for his betrayal. Montenegro, A provincia, chapt. 11.

79. Anais.Sen., July 6, 1874, p. 57.

80. Peter Sahlins, Boundaries, p. 9.

81. The literature on Canudos is extensive. The primary account, published in the early twentieth century and read widely both inside and outside Brazil is by Euclides da Cunha. Penguin Classics recently came out with a new edition: Backlands: The Canudos Campaign, Elizabeth, Lowe, trans. (New York: Penguin Classics, 2011).Google Scholar

82. The expression “river of national unity” is most often attributed to the 1924 work of Vicente Licinio Cardoso, which was reissued in 1979 as part of the Brasiliana series. Cardoso, , A margan da historia do Brasil, 4th ed., Brasiliana 13 (Sào Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1979), pp. 3–41;Google Scholar Wilson Lins, O medio Sào Francisco; and Geraldo Rocha, O Rio S. Francisco.

83. In fact, there has recently been another attempt to turn the middle Sào Francisco Valley and western Bahia into a new state. See Haesbaert, Rogério, “‘Gauchos’ e Baianos no ‘Novo’ Nordeste: entre a glob-alizaçào econòmica e a reinvençâo das identidades territorials,” Brasil: questòes atuais da reorganizaçào do territòrio, de Castro, Iná Elias, Costa Gomes, Paulo César da, and Lobato Correa, Roberto, eds. (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Bertrand Brasil, 1996), pp. 367–415.Google Scholar