Genealogical study of two abolitionists from Parana: Priest Ribeiro and Rocha Pombo

Abstract

This article aims to better understand the abolitionist process in Curitiba from the perspective of two of its leaders, Priest Antônio Joaquim Ribeiro and journalist and writer José Francisco da Rocha Pombo, and thus to reflect on this crucial moment in our history. To this end, we will start from two news articles on the subject published in the newspaper Gazeta Paranaense in April 1888. The first is a circular addressed to all parish priests in the region, sent by the Forensic Vicar General, Priest Ribeiro, asking them to actively engage in the end of slavery in their parishes; the second is about the founding of the Parana Abolitionist Confederation in Curitiba, led by the military and which was composed of numerous civil entities and in which the speaker Rocha Pombo stood out; in short, there were two actions that mobilized society, through the Catholic Church and the military associated with clubs in general; and the specific look at Priest Ribeiro and Rocha Pombo is in the sense of understanding who was this religious, intellectual and political elite that was at the forefront of this process of social mobilization. To this end, we used the genealogical method of social research, worked on by sociologists such as Daniel Bertaux and Ricardo Costa de Oliveira, to understand who was this abolitionist elite, and in which their genealogies point to a past of inheritance of land ownership, use of slave labor and political domination. Therefore, for this case analyzed, the abolitionist struggle ended up being restricted to a humanistic religious sense and, mainly, in favor of the renewal of productive forces, with no concern for what would become of the black population after abolition, and in which it was implicit
that they should only adapt to the new times and work models.