“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Vital de Oliveira, securing his election as a municipal judge in Alegrete in 1860. Vital
immediately launched an investigation into Teixeira’s and Freitas Valle’s involvement in the
1852 killing of Paulo Rocha in connection with the violence against Prado Lima and Amaral.
With the tables turned, Prado Lima now served as an alternate judge in the proceeding,
taking evidence from witnesses against his former persecutors. 56 The investigation bore
fruit. Vital produced evidence that Teixeira had secured safe passage for one of the two
soldiers that had allegedly murdered Rocha to his home town of Cruz Alta and then
ultimately across the border to Corrientes. 57 Backed by Canabarro, Prado Lima and his local
allies now appeared to be pushing the line between legal actions and illegal violence back in
their favor.
Rather than answer the charges against him, Teixeira responded by bringing suit
against Vital for misconduct. Teixeira’s allegations stemmed from a decision by Vital finding
that a pardo woman, Theodora, was legally a slave. 58 It certainly helped Teixeira’s case that
Vital was likely playing fast and loose with the law. Theodora’s purported owner had filed a
petition seeking to establish her status as a slave. Vital, however, had reframed the entire
proceeding as a petition by Theodora for her own freedom. As a result, Vital effectively
shifted the burden of proof on to what probably seemed to him to be a powerless defendant.
We can speculate that in doing so, Vital provided another form of legal protection to one of
Canabarro’s local factional allies. By ensuring that the Brazilian master’s property rights to
Theodora remained legally intact, he could further cement reciprocal ties between his patron
and a prominent vizinho in the town.
56 Justiça ex-oficio c. Tenente Geminiano Manoel Casal, 18bis
57 Ibid., 215-218.
58 Justiça Ex-Oficio c. Bach. Geminiano Antonio Vital de Oliveira, Juiz Municipal Deste Termo,
APRGS. Alegrete. Cartório Civil e Crime. Processos Crime, Maço 83, No. 2901 (1859).
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