Literacy and schooling of Afro-Brazilian workers in Recife in the 1800’s: profiles and possibilities

Abstract

In this study, we discuss the practices of schooling and literacy of the Afro-Brazilian population in the context of nineteenthcentury in Brazil, interpreting these different “ways to practice” as everyday initiatives of resistance and social affirmation used by Afro-Brazilians in face of the political and cultural limitations of slave society. This sociocultural process is herein analyzed since the official implementation of the “first letters” classes to teachers and apprentices of crafts by a professional association founded in the city of Recife. We observed the social and ethnic repercussions of this educational activity and what it represents in the understanding of the symbolic and material production of Afro-Brazilians in the New World.