Abstract: The focus of this article is the Militia of Pardo Men of Rio de Janeiro (free and freed-men of color) at the turn of the nineteenth century. Drawing on petitions and official letters, it demonstrates the importance of the militia as an institutional space through which pardo men residing in the city organized themselves collectively. By rendering valuable military services, these men learned to mobilize themselves to challenge the royal bureaucracy to obtain what they judged to be a right. Here, the notion of a right did not, as it already did in the United States, refer to the liberal world of universal civil rights. Rather, pardo officers demanded the enforcement of recent laws granting them access to higher militia ranks. The first generation had to confront the staunch opposition of colonial administrators and the local elite to their claims. Yet, this generation’s achievements consolidated the militia of pardo men of Rio de Janeiro, encouraging younger officers to become more engaged, starting in 1821 in the fight for Brazilian independence and leading some young pardo men to launch themselves politically through the press in 1831.
Adriana Barreto de Souza (Wed,) studied this question.