Sertanejos Paths

Comparing the experiences of freedmen and their descendants in Morro do Chapeu with other similar slave societies made me realise that, as in other places, the context surrounding the gradual abolition and the immediate post-abolition period may have involved power and continuous and permanent negotiation in the maintenance of domination in Morro do Chapeu. The liberation of blacks in the Sertao Baiano, as well as throughout Brazil, was not an event that happened only with the signing of the Golden Law on 13 May 1888, a law whose main objective was to end slavery in Brazil. On the contrary, it was a slow and gradual process, fulfilling only a legal act as opposed to creating public policies to integrate the freed into society. The main aim of this research was to expand knowledge about black populations in the Bahian hinterlands, but the investigations do not end here; part of the path has been travelled in order to better understand the meanings of freedom and personal dependence.