Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: JOAO ANTONIO DE DEUS BARBOSA NOGUEIRA

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : JOAO ANTONIO DE DEUS BARBOSA NOGUEIRA
DATE: 26/08/2025
TIME: 16:00
LOCAL: Ambiente virtual (Google Meet)
TITLE:

Sertão and the Independence of Brazil: The Struggle of the People of Piauí in the Battle of
Jenipapo (1808–1823)

 

KEY WORDS:

Battle of Jenipapo; Historiography; Brazilian Independence; The People; Sertão

PAGES: 51
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: História
SUMMARY:

This dissertation offers a reinterpretation of the Brazilian Independence process through the
lens of the Piauí hinterlands, with a particular focus on the Battle of Jenipapo (1823). It
challenges the traditional historiographical narrative that centralizes independence events
within the Rio de Janeiro–São Paulo–Minas Gerais axis, while marginalizing the role of popular
and hinterland actors. The Battle of Jenipapo, fought in Campo Maior (PI), is examined as a
key episode of local resistance led by sertanejos, enslaved individuals, Indigenous peoples, and
rural workers against Portuguese forces seeking to maintain colonial control. The study is
structured in three chapters. The first presents independence as a slow and asymmetrical
process, marked by regional conflicts and divergent political interests, highlighting the
multiplicity of “independences” across provinces such as Bahia, Maranhão, Pará, and Piauí.
The second chapter investigates the historical marginalization of the hinterlands, both
politically and symbolically, often depicted as backward or peripheral spaces within the
national narrative. The third chapter explores popular participation in the independence process,
drawing on Jacques Rancière’s conceptualization of “the people” as political agents, to
demonstrate how subaltern groups actively engaged in shaping historical outcomes.
Methodologically, the research relies on primary sources, including 19th-century newspapers
from the Hemeroteca Digital Brasileira and historical accounts published by the Instituto
Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro. Employing Carlo Ginzburg’s evidential paradigm, the study
analyzes silences and omissions within these sources, especially concerning the role of the
hinterlands and the actions of common people. The concept of sertão (hinterland) is understood
as a discursive construction, informed by dominant historical mentalities, following the
theoretical perspectives of Antonio Carlos Robert Moraes and Maria Dione de Carvalho
Moraes. By engaging with the works of scholars such as Johny Santana, Lilia Schwarcz, and
Evaldo Cabral de Mello, the dissertation contributes to contemporary historiographical debates
on the plurality of the Brazilian emancipation process, the role of regional elites, and the
presence of republican and federalist alternatives to the imperial monarchical project.
Movements such as the Pernambucan Revolution (1817) and the Confederation of the Equator
(1824) are analyzed as expressions of these alternative nation-building visions. Ultimately, this
study aims to broaden the understanding of Brazilian Independence by recognizing the sertão
as a politically significant space and the popular classes as historical subjects. It advocates for
a more plural and decentralized interpretation of Brazil’s independence, incorporating voices and territories often excluded from dominant national memory—particularly those of the Piauí
hinterlands and the fighters of the Battle of Jenipapo.

 

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Interno - 1040569 - ANTONIO JOSE DE OLIVEIRA
Interna - 1934542 - PAULA REJANE FERNANDES
Presidente - ***.653.724-** - ROSENILSON DA SILVA SANTOS - UERN