The People of the River
Nature and Identity in Black Amazonia, 1835–1945
Oscar de la Torre
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 08/2018
Pages: 242
Subject: History, Science
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78147E+12
eBook ISBN: 9781469643250
DESCRIPTION
Prior to abolition, enslaved and escaped blacks found in the tropical forest a source for tools, weapons, and trade--but it was also a cultural storehouse within which they shaped their stories and records of confrontations with slaveowners and state authorities. After abolition, the black peasants' knowledge of local environments continued to be key to their aspirations, allowing them to maintain relationships with powerful patrons and to participate in the protest cycle that led Getulio Vargas to the presidency of Brazil in 1930. In commonly referring to themselves by such names as "sons of the river," black Amazonians melded their agro-ecological traditions with their emergent identity as political stakeholders.