Black children in history: Sources and discourse on the short childhood allowed by Brazilian slavery in the 19th century

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/198271991167

The article presents part of historical research on children, childhood and race in the 19th century iconography. The main aim of the article is to discuss how children and black childhood were represented in a number of pictorial materials. Focusing on childhood history and its interfaces with Brazilian slavery history, the article presents a brief introduction about the sources and the research field. The analysis aims to show traces of black childhood in the 19th century, from travel literature to memory journals. Some aspects of children’s life, such as play and education point out that, even in a limited and restricted way, it was possible to demonstrate that children experienced childhood moments; it was also possible to envision their form of resistance to adult impositions. Some reflections about education are exposed before discussing the relation between childhood and work and the presentation of children´s perceptions of slavery, collected from literary texts. The final considerations are based on the analysis of a short story written at the beginning of the 20th century, which still presents traces of slavery by showing an enslaved black child, despite out of formal slavery. Despite the harshness of slavery, the article considers the possibility of a playful childhood, which is mediating, playful, challenging, made up of few moments of satisfaction among toys, games, pranks and transgressions.

Keywords: Black children, Childhood, Childhood history.