Nireu Cavalcanti finds record of capoeira in 1789

Adam, the mulatto boy that master Manoel Cardoso Fontes had bought a young lad, grew into a robustious, hard-working and very obedient slave in household duties.

Manoel decided to let him out for rent as a mason hand, a carrier or any other hard work service. So Adam turned out to be a major source of income for his master.

With time, the shy slave who used to stay home became more offhanded and independant and began to come back late, times after the end of his service. Manoel asked repeatedly what was it that made Adam change so much -- but answer were weak and inconsistent. Until one day, fulfilling Manoel's fears, Adam did not come home at all. Sure, he would have flown to any of the maroon vilages [quilombos] around the town.

To his surprise, Manoel found Adam behind the bars of the Provincial jail. He had been arrested with a gang of ruffians who practiced capoeira. A quarrel had broken out that day and one of them got killed in the action. It was a crime of the gravest by the laws of the realm, capoeira practice, more so with a fatal casualty.

The trial found Adam not guilty of the homicide, but confirmed his guilt on the charge of capoeira, and condemned him to 500 lashes and two year's hard work in public service.

His master, after Adam had suffered the lashes in public and laboured some months in the public works, sent to the king a plea, in the name of the Passion of Christ, asking that his slave be released from the rest of his term, on the ground that himself a poor man, he depended on the income that his slave brought him. He promised to take care that Adam would not join the capoeiras again. His plea was granted by the Provicial Judge on April 25, 1789.

(ANRJ — Tribunal da Relação — cód. 24, livro 10)

Published initially with illustrations by Hélio Brasil. Copyright © 1999-2000, JB Online. Total or partial reproduction of the contents of the JB Online for commercial purposes is prohibited.

notes.
Easter Day in 1789 was April 12.
Nireu Cavalcanti wrote 53 chronicles for the Jornal do Brasil in 1999-2000. His archival reseach fed his thesis and a book, all works of interest for any student of capoeira who wants information about the society in which capoeira developed.