Manifestations of Personhood. Self-Descriptions of Slaves in Nineteenth-Century Brazil

该项目分析了十九世纪巴西被奴役者的自我描述。它侧重于被奴役者在自动文件中关于自己的陈述，即人们提供关于自己的证据的文件。奴役在被奴役者的自我描述中扮演了什么角色？性别、社会关系、宗教、工作、物质条件和法律的环境有多重要？该项目是巴西奴隶制新社会历史的一部分，它将被奴役者置于利益中心。近年来，越来越多的历史学家将被奴役者视为自己历史的主角。因此，被奴役人民的自动文件变得更加重要的历史研究。然而，研究表明，人们对被奴役者如何描述自己的兴趣不大。分析被奴役者自我描述中的多方面陈述，该项目将受益于欧洲自传和自传文献研究中确立的方法工具。这样做的目的是帮助了解十九世纪巴西的奴隶制历史，这一历史并没有使被奴役的人沦为奴隶。

The project analyzes self-descriptions of enslaved people in nineteenth-century Brazil. It focuses on statements of the enslaved about their own persons in auto-documents, i.e. documents where people give evidence about themselves. Which role did bondage play in self-portrayals of enslaved people? How important were gender, social relationships, religion, work, material conditions, and legal settings? The project is part of a new social history of slavery in Brazil which puts the enslaved in the center of interest. In recent years, a growing number of historians have understood the enslaved as protagonists of their own history. Accordingly, auto-documents of enslaved people became more important for historical research. However, research has shown little interest in the way enslaved people described themselves. Analyzing the multifaceted statements found in self-descriptions of enslaved people, this project will benefit from methodological tools well-established in European research on autobiography and auto-documents. In so doing, the project aims to contribute to an understanding of the history of slavery in nineteenth-century Brazil which does not reduce the enslaved human beings to their state of bondage.