“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
They obtained testimony establishing that although Pedro was baptized in the Estado Oriental, he had in fact been born across the border in Brazil as the Azambujas claimed. Having successfully undermined the written evidence supporting his Uruguayan citizenship, officials turned to his familial connections. The investigators obtained evidence from members of Pedro’s family that the former slave was not Catalina’s son, but in fact her stepson. He had been born in Brazil to another women and then moved to the Estado Oriental with his Brazilian father. 28 The testimony was certainly damning — particularly so, given that Brazilian officials maintained the position that regardless of other evidence, the nationality of the father exclusively determined that of his children. 29 It is less clear whether it was truthful. With authorities now questioning individual family members from an admittedly vulnerable minority, it is entirely possible that officials used threats or even violence to construct the record they wanted. Moreover, it technically should not have mattered. Because Pedro had fled Brazil prior to the 1851 invasion, he was not covered under the terms of the Extradition Treaty and, therefore, legally free. Regardless, in the end the renewed investigation had effectively pried Pedro from his web of familial connections. It had rendered him isolated and vulnerable to reenslavement. Based on this evidence, local officials ordered Pedro returned to Cándido as a Brazilian slave. Pedro’s case reveals the complex manner in which slave citizenship claims and borderlands legalities intertwined. Pedro and his family developed sophisticated strategies to assert their membership in the Uruguayan political community and clarify its boundaries. Yet by attempting to propel the process of state formation and national identification forward in the service of personal freedom, they invited a response from their purported 28 Información relativa al negro Pedro, reclamando como esclavo, 13bis-14. 29 Prado, "Las Representaciones del Brasil," 165-98. 272
Brazilian masters that resulted in the further erosion of Uruguay’s sovereign boundaries. This response flowed directly from the now familiar elements of borderlands legalities. These stressed cross-border connections. They also implied the extension of Brazilian slave laws across the borderlands. In this sense, the legal strategies by both slaves and masters in Pedro’s case reprised the long-standing sovereign conflicts between putative national legal systems and the alternative, peripheral legalities in the borderlands. Masters and slaves alike repeatedly clashed over the contours of these competing legalities and identities as they worked to secure their rights and define their places in an extremely fluid world. The ambiguities of citizenship were particularly problematic because they threatened internal order. While Brazilian masters might emphasize cross-border connections to blunt slave efforts to claim Uruguayan citizenship, factional legal conflicts throughout the borderlands complicated these efforts. Slaves proved adept at exploiting the tensions created by factional struggles to control the administration of justice on both sides of the border in their efforts to escape Brazilian slave laws. A series of cases surrounding Fermin Ferreira offers an example of the importance of factional conflicts in creating the necessary space for slaves to win their freedom. It also provides evidence of the potential for slave strategies to engender further violence. 30 The case began in October of 1856 when José da Asumpção Ferreira, a Brazilian subject, appeared before local officials in Salto. He requested Fermin’s return as a fugitive slave. The police in Salto acted quickly, arresting Fermin that same day. Under questioning, Fermin readily admitted that he had been a slave in Brazil. He testified that Emilio Manuel Moreira, a resident in the city of Rio Pardo in the central 30 José da Asumpção Pereyra, subdito Brasilero y apoderado general de su madre Dn. Bernadina Maria Pereyra, residente en la Probincia de Rio Grande al Gefe Político Dn. Diego Lamas, AGN. Salto. Jefatura (1856). In the police investigation, Uruguayan officials refer to the Ferreira family as Pereyra. In their own documents submitted in connection with the investigation, they refer to themselves as Ferreira. I use the family’s spelling throughout. 273
- Page 231 and 232: that department, Colonel Diego Lama
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- Page 279 and 280: defined their respective places in
- Page 281: supply his troops. 26 By the time o
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- Page 287 and 288: in the Estado Oriental. At the hear
- Page 289 and 290: was also a personal enemy of Canaba
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Brazilian masters that resulted in the further erosion of Uruguay’s sovereign boundaries.<br />
This response flowed directly from the now familiar elements of borderlands legalities.<br />
These stressed cross-border connections. They also implied the extension of Brazilian slave<br />
laws across the borderlands. In this sense, the legal strategies by both slaves and masters in<br />
Pedro’s case reprised the long-standing sovereign conflicts between putative national legal<br />
systems and the alternative, peripheral legalities in the borderlands. Masters and slaves alike<br />
repeatedly clashed over the contours of these competing legalities and identities as they<br />
worked to secure their rights and define their places in an extremely fluid world.<br />
The ambiguities of citizenship were particularly problematic because they threatened<br />
internal order. While Brazilian masters might emphasize cross-border connections to blunt<br />
slave efforts to claim Uruguayan citizenship, factional legal conflicts throughout the<br />
borderlands complicated these efforts. Slaves proved adept at exploiting the tensions<br />
created by factional struggles to control the administration of justice on both sides of the<br />
border in their efforts to escape Brazilian slave laws. A series of cases surrounding Fermin<br />
Ferreira offers an example of the importance of factional conflicts in creating the necessary<br />
space for slaves to win their freedom. It also provides evidence of the potential for slave<br />
strategies to engender further violence. 30 The case began in October of 1856 when José da<br />
Asumpção Ferreira, a Brazilian subject, appeared before local officials in Salto. He requested<br />
Fermin’s return as a fugitive slave. The police in Salto acted quickly, arresting Fermin that<br />
same day. Under questioning, Fermin readily admitted that he had been a slave in Brazil.<br />
He testified that Emilio Manuel Moreira, a resident in the city of Rio Pardo in the central<br />
<br />
30 José da Asumpção Pereyra, subdito Brasilero y apoderado general de su madre Dn. Bernadina<br />
Maria Pereyra, residente en la Probincia de Rio Grande al Gefe Político Dn. Diego Lamas, AGN. Salto.<br />
Jefatura (1856). In the police investigation, Uruguayan officials refer to the Ferreira family as<br />
Pereyra. In their own documents submitted in connection with the investigation, they refer<br />
to themselves as Ferreira. I use the family’s spelling throughout.<br />
273 <br />
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