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Ron Seckinger - Rusga
Ron Seckinger - Rusga
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POWER
393
394
OF NATIVISM IN MATOGROSSO
POLITICS
adopted policies of legal discriminationagainst the foreign-born and exclusion of "undesirable"immigrants.4The same trans-Atlantic migration prompted cultural nationalism and immigration restriction in Argentina, while Chileansrespondedwith economic nationalism.5
The early national history of Brazil and Mexico offers exceptions to
this pattern. Soon after independence, both countries saw nativist movements aimed at former colonial elites. During the 1820s, a nativist faction
in Mexico capitalized on anti-Spanishsentiment in a struggle for power.
Political and economic competition between creoles and peninsulares,
along with creole resentment against the former masters of the colony,
led to numerous mutinies and outbreaks of violence. The nativists seized
the opportunity to enhance their own political fortunes by legislating the
expulsion of Spaniardsfrom Mexico on three separateoccasions between
1827 and 1833.6
Independence brought a similar reaction in Brazil, where the Portuguese-born became the targets of violence and verbal insults. This study
examines one of the numerous instances of Brazilian nativism: the period of nativist agitation in the province of Mato Grosso, culminating in
the Rusga, an anti-Portugueseuprisingthat took place in 1834.
II.
Although Braziliansand Portuguese shared a common language and a
common religion, different values and life-styles had long separatedthem
into two distinct groups and were in themselves sources of friction. The
disproportionate wealth and political influence of the Portuguese contributed to Brazilianresentment,manifested by civil wars in Pernambuco
and the mining zones during the early eighteenth century. Lusophobia
was also evident in the liberal revolts of the late colonial era and in the
achievement of independence. But nativism as a political movement did
not appear until the First Empire (1822-1831), when a nativist party
emerged in response to the autocratic behavior of Pedro I and his reli4 Ann Marie Pescatello, "Both Ends of the Journey: An Historical Study of Migration
and Changein Braziland Portugal, 1889-1914"(Ph.D. dissertation,University of California,
Los Angeles, 1970), 248-254; Michael M. Hall, "The Italians in Sio Paulo, 1880-1920,"
paper presented at annualmeeting of American Historical Association, Dec. 28, 1971;and
J. Fernando Carneiro, ImigrafJo e Colonizacao no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1950), 31-37.
5 Carl E. Solberg, Immigrationand Nationalism: Argentina and Chile, 1890-1914 (Austin, 1970).
6 Harold D. Sims, "The
Expulsion of the Spaniardsfrom Mexico (1821-1828)" (Ms, to
be published by Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, Mexico) and "Las clases econ6micas y la
dicotomia criollo-peninsularen Durango, 1827,"Historia Mexicana, XX, No. 4 (Apr.June 1971), 539-562; and Romeo Flores Caballero, La contra-revolucidn en la independencia. Los espaiiolesen la vida politica, social y econmnzicade Mexico (1804-1838) (Mdxico, 1969).
RoN L. SECKINGER
395
my knowledge, no comprehensive
cronol6gicos
da provincia
396
RON L. SECKINGER
397
nated all three of these bodies and claimed in addition various judicial
and administrativeposts at the provincial level.
Moreover, the elite was seldom checked by imperially appointed officials. After the overthrow of the last colonial governor in September 1821,
various juntas administered the province until the arrival in September
1825 of the first provincial president, the only outsider to preside over the
province until late in 1834. When the president departed in April 1828,
he was succeeded in the administrationby the vice-president, Jerinimo
Joaquim Nunes, a Portuguese-born army officer and member of the Cuiabaielite. Andr6 Gaudie Ley, a Brazilianmerchant and also a member of
the elite, became vice-president in January 1830. And in July 1831, a
third member of the elite, Ant6nio Correa da Costa, assumed the presidency after being named to the post by the imperial government." The
entrenched leadershipwas further isolated from imperial interference by
distance and rough terrain; communication between Rio de Janeiro and
Cuiabanormally requiredten to twelve weeks in each direction.
On the fringes of the elite were a number of small-time merchants,
ranchers,public officials,and professionals.Many of these men held commissionsin the national guard, created by the Regency in 1831 as a check
on the army, the loyalty of which was suspect because of the high proportion of Portuguese-bornofficers.Some also held posts in the municipal
and provincial councils. It was from this segment of the population that
the nativist leadershipemerged. Because of the identification of the Portuguese with the traditional elite of the province, nativism could be used
to discredit the entire elite and thereby open the way for the political rise
of others.
The nativists could count on the support of at least three other groups.
The first was the urban poor, headed by the artisans-carpenters, tailors,
cobblers, blacksmiths, masons, jewelers, saddlers, boiler-makers, tinkers,
and silk-spinners-who numbered 245 mastercraftsmen, 242 journeymen,
and 245 apprentices in the province,'2 perhaps half of them located in
Cuiabai.Almost all of the artisansof Cuiabi were mulattoes,13 and thus
the usual antagonismbetween rich and poor was augmented by racial tensions. Even if E. J. Hobsbawn's assertion that "Who says cobbler says
Radical"'' cannot be applied to Cuiabi, the artisanswere neverthelesssusd
13 Hercules Florence, Viagem Fluvial do Tiete ao Amazonas, de 1825 a 1829, trans. Afonso
de Escragnolle Taunay (2nd ed.; Sgo Paulo, 1948), 179.
14 E.
398
ceptible to nativist appealsand turned on the Portuguese when the opportunity presenteditself.
Vagrants made up a second group. Like all Braziliancities, Cuiaba attracted a throng of drifters, mostly of mixed racial ancestry. This mass of
unskilled, illiterate, propertyless poor shunned manual labor in favor of
the life of the vagabond, surviving by begging, gambling, and petty crime.
A contemporary described the vagrantsof Cuiabi as "a multitude of loafers who daily cross the streets and plazasand fill the taverns without one's
knowing what might be their occupation, trade, etc.; being even more
a cause for wonder that almost all of them appear to be fops and pretentious paupers.""5They passed the hours in dancing the African batuque and cururu and in performing the capoeira, the stylized mock fight
invented by the slaves and marginal population of Brazil. A scandalized
observer, complaining of the idleness and crime that characterized Cuiabai,painted this picture:
Many water-carrierscongregate here because of the great scarcity of
water. Every day headsand water pots are broken,and no measurehas
been taken about this problem. At the Prainha [a stream in the city]
one finds groups of Negroes on Holy Days, performingthe capoeira
or playing drumsor dancing the cururu,so that it resemblesa place in
Africa more than a ProvincialCapitalin the ConstitutionalEmpire of
Brazil.'"
Many persons, especially those from outside Cuiabai,insisted on carrying
guns in town, a custom that resultedin many gunfights and killings."
Soldiers constituted the third and most important group that followed
the nativist leadership. Like their counterparts elsewhere, the army and
national-guardtroops stationed in Mato Grosso were a downtrodden lot
and frequently expressed their frustrationsin violence. Forcibly recruited, the soldiers-most of them artisans,vagrants,or subsistencefarmersendured harsh treatment and physical deprivation. They suffered from
lack of food, clothing, salaries,and other supplies, and from exploitation
by unscrupulous officers. The popular refrain attributed to the troops of
the late colonial period might just as well have originated during the
years following independence:
15 A Matutina Meiapontense, Nov. 6, 1833.
16Ibid., Mar. 15, 1831.For a general discussion of vagrancy in the late colonial era, see
Prado, ColonialBackground,328-333,402-414.
17Ricardo Jose Gomes Jardim,Discurso Recitado pelo Exm. Presidente da Provincia de
Mato Grosso, Ricardo Jose Gomes Jardim, na Abertura da Sessio Ordinaria da Assemblea LegislativaProvincial em 10 de Junho de 1846 (Cuiabai,1846),6.
The violence that pervaded the lives of the free poor is admirably discussed in a case
study of a community in Sio Paulo province during the nineteenth century: Maria Sylvia
de CarvalhoFranco,Homens Livres na Ordem Escravocrata(Sio Paulo, 1969), 19-60.
RoN L. SECKINGER
399
Oh, Jesus!
DeathshallI meet!
So muchserving,
So little to eat!18
Desertion and insurrection were common occurrences, especially among
the frontier garrisons.The lack of military discipline was compounded by
the practice of exiling rebellioustroops to Mato Grosso, far from the populous coastal provinces, and by that of conscripting social deviants. The
authoritiesused conscription as punishment for local felons; in 1826, for
example, a militiaman was inducted into the army because of "his bad
habit of barbecuing other people's cattle."'9 Some members of the "battalion of the periquitos [parakeets]," which had revolted and assassinated
the commander-of-arms of Bahia in 1824, were exiled to Mato Grosso,
where they contributed to the unrest among the troops.20 Between 1821
and 1832, some fifteen incidents of armed insurrection by soldiers occurred at variouspoints in the province.21
Discontent, then, ran high in Cuiaba'and throughout Mato Grosso.
Moreover, a corps of armed men accustomed to violence was at hand
when the nativists chose to make use of it. Soldiers, vagrants, and urban
poor constituted a manpower reserve that could be mobilized to serve
the interests of the nativist counter-elite once the political situation called
for a violent solution to the competition for power.
18
"Ai! Jesus!/Que vou a morrer!/Tanto serviqo,/tio pouco comer!" Jose de Mesquita, "Gente e cousas de antanho. Periodo colonial," Revista do Instituto Histdrico de
Mato Grosso (hereafter cited as RIHMT), Anos XXIX-XXX, Tomos 57-60 (1947-1948),
16. Abundant documentation of the harsh conditions suffered by the soldiers is available
in the Arquivo Pi'blico do Estado de Mato Grosso (hereafter cited as APEMT), Cuiabi.
Since my research in Cuiabaiin 1967and 1968,a reorganizationof the state government
has transformed the APEMT into the Departamento de Documentagio e Arquivo, Secretariade Administraqiodo Estado de Mato Grosso.
19APEMT, caixa 1826:Ant6nio Jose Ramos e Costa to Jose Saturninoda Costa Pereira,
Diamantino,Aug. 22, 1826.
20 Seven periquitos were indicted for their participation in the 1834 uprising in Cuiabi; see the sources listed in footnote 79. Concerning the periquitos' revolt in Bahia, see
Laercio Caldeira de Andrade, "O cel. Felisberto Gomes Caldeira e a independencia da
Bahia. O coronel Jose Bonificio Caldeira de Andrada e suas 'Memorias.'" Primeiro Congresso de Hist6ria da Bahia,Anais (5 vols.; Salvador,1950-1951),III, 213-234;and "Memoria
descriptiva dos attentados da facqio demagogica na provincia da Bahia. Contendo a narraqio circumstanciada da rebelliio de 25 Outubro de 1824, e mais factos relativos,
ate o dia do embarque para Pernambuco do 30 batalhio de linha, denominado dos-periquitos-e contendo as relaq6es officiaes da tropa reunida fbra da cidade por causa da dita
rebelliio," RIHGB, XXX, Pt. 1 (1867), 233-355.
21Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiabi, Oct. 14, 1832,
published in "Documentossobre a Rusga,"RIHMT, Anos XIII-XIV, Tomos 25-28 (1931-1932),169-170.
400
III.
The centralfigureof thenativistmovement
in MatoGrossowasa mulatto surgeonnamedAntonioLuiz Patricioda SilvaManso,born in
1788in theprovinceof Sio Paulo.In late 1822Mansoarrivedin Cuiabai
to assumethepostof surgeon-major
of theprovince.Withina few years
thehaughtyandabrasive
mulattohadalienated
persons,
manyinfluential
Colonel
a
merchant
Caldas,
JodoPoupino
especially
wealthyBrazilian
andmilitiaofficerwho becameManso's
enemy.Otherthana
implacable
briefperiodof serviceon the provincialboardof revenue(juntada faalooffrompoliticsuntilAugust1831,whenhe
zenda),Mansoremained
wasappointed
of
government.22
secretary theprovincial
of nativism.
Mansowas not associated
with the initialmanifestations
Thefirstincidentoccurred
inthecityof MatoGrosso,formerlyVilaBela,
in
of PedroI arrived
theoldcolonialcapital.Whennewsof theabdication
the ousterof a few
thatcity in July 1831,numerous
citizensdemanded
da
a wealthylandofficials.
But
Correa
Ant6nio
Costa,
Portuguese-born
ownerandnativeof Cuiab:iwho hadrecentlyassumedthe provincial
deniedthe petitionandinsistedthatthe officialsretaintheir
presidency,
positions.23
Althoughat thistimethe entirecountrywitnessedsuchspontaneous
outbursts
the Regencywas not thenconcerned
againstthe Portuguese,
who hadswornallegianceto the
overthe loyaltyof thosePortuguese
Brazilof 1824.Suchpersons,calledAdotivos("adopted"
Constitution
of
the
and
ians),enjoyedfullcitizenship
rights escaped earlypurge BraIn August1831the imperialgovernmentinstructed
zilianofficialdom.
of publicemployees;
the nationality
to investigate
provincial
presidents
andtheirpositionsfilledby Brazilians,
allforeigners
wereto be dismissed
citizens.24
Adotivosdidnot fallunderthe susAdotivos,andnaturalized
or Caraof the restorationist,
formation
until
the
of
the
picion
Regency
muru,party.
werestillPorButto thesoldiersof MatoGrossothePortuguese-born
22 Manso's career is treated in Correa Filho, Notas a
Margenm, 21-30; J. Remedios Monteiro, "Biographia do Dr. Antonio Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso," RIHGB, LIII, Pt. 2
(1890), 385-393; Basilio de Magalhies, "Biographia de Antonio Luiz Patricio da Silva
Manso," Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, XXII (1919), 77-96; Rubens
de Mendonga, O Tigre de Cuiabd (Campo Grande, 1966); and Franklin Cassiano, "Antonio
Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso," RIHMT, Ano XVI, Tomos 31-32 (1934), 57-71. Concerning
Poupino, see Jose de Mesquita, "Joio Poupino Caldas," ibid., 73-117.
23 Arquivo Nacional, Segio dos Ministerios (hereafter cited as AN-SM), Rio de
Janeiro, pasta IJJ9 505: Ant6nio Correa da Costa to Manoel Jose de Sousa Franga (No.
32), Cuiabai,Sept. 2, 1831.
24 Decree No. 252, Aug. 18, 1831, Collec~fo das Decis6es do Governo do Brazil de
1831 (Rio de Janeiro, 1876), 190-191.
RoN L.
SECKINGER
401
tuguese, Braziliancitizenship notwithstanding. On the evening of December 7, 1831, the Cuiabaigarrison rebelled and demanded that Joao Poupino Caldas replace Jer6nimo Joaquim Nunes as commander-of-arms
and that all other Adotivo officeholders be discharged. The administrative council reluctantly capitulated on both points, "since by this illegal
step worse evils will be avoided."'" This uprising initiated a series of
military mutinies and rumors of mutinies that persisted despite preventive measuresby the administrativecouncil. In October 1832, following
a rebellion by the garrison at Albuquerque (now Corumbai),the council disbanded all regular-army units in the province and replaced them
with a new legion of light infantry (ligeiros).26 But such measuresproved
ineffective in halting military unrest.
During 1832 the fear that Pedro I would be restored to the throne
fueled the nativist movement throughout Brazil. Even before the restorationists' abortive coup in Rio de Janeiro in April, the provincial president of Goias proposed a joint effort by the governments of Goiais,Mato
Grosso, Minas Gerais, So Paulo, Espirito Santo, and Paraito thwart the
designs of "anarchists"and Caramurus. Correa da Costa promised the
support of Mato Grosso for such a project,27 but the whole affair was
merely a patriotic exorcism of the restorationist demon. The president
of Goias also founded the Society for the Defense of Liberty and National
Independence in May 1832, in the city of Meia Ponte.28 A MatutinaMeiapontense, a Meia Ponte newspaper that was distributed to subscribers
in Cuiabaiand reached other Mato Grosso settlements as well, regularly
reported on the activities of this nativist organization. The newspaper's
xenophobic editorials and its role as propagandist for the club contributed to the growth of nativismin Mato Grosso. But nativism remainedinchoate until the arrival of a Carmelite friar named Jos6 dos Santos Innocentes.
Innocentes was vicar-general of the comarca (district) of Rio Negro
(later the province of Amazonas) in Parai.In June 1832, disgruntled
25 AN-SM, pasta IG1 260: Atas of administrative council
(copies), Dec. 7 and 8, 1831,
accompanying Jolo Poupino Caldas to Manoel da Fonseca Lima e Silva (No. 44), Cuiabs, Jan. 4, 1832. The Adotivos were reinstated by order of the Regency in June 1832, with
the exception of Nunes, who declined to resume his post because of illness. Poupino retained the provincial military command until replaced by a new imperial appointee in
November 1832. [Leverger], "Apontarnentos cronol6gicos," 345-346.
26 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Atas of administrative council
(copies), Cuiabi, Oct. 13, 14,
and 16, 1832, accompanying Correa da Costa to Jos6 Lino Coutinho, Cuiabi, Nov. 7,
1832.
27 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Administrative council to [Pedro II], Cuiabi,
May 4, 1832,
and accompanying documents; and A Matutina Meiapontense, June 9 and July 4, 1832.
28 A Matutina Meiapontense,
June 9, 1832.
402
AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Ant6nio Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso to Nicolau Pereira de
Campos Vergueiro, Cuiabai, Mar. 1, 1833.
31 APEMT, caixa 1833: Joaquim Francisco Gonqalves Ponce de Leko to Correa da
Costa, Cuiabai, Mar. 28, 1833.
32
Virgilio Correa Filho, Histdria de Mato Grosso (Rio de Janeiro, 1969), 479, 508, n.
106.
30
RON L. SECKINGER
40 3
troops,33 who had raised one of the first cries against the Adotivos. Moreover, in 1825 he had accused Poupino of frightening the Portuguese residents of Cuiabaiby shouting "Death to the p6-de-chumbo!" before the
home of an Adotivo.34Manso's conversion coincided with efforts by the
traditional elite of Cuiabaito eliminate him from participation in the
provincial government. It is unclear whether the elite began its campaign
after Manso became a nativist or whether he embraced nativism in response to the efforts of the entrenched leadershipto end his career.
The first serious clash occurred over Manso's appointment in January
1833 to a special commission charged with investigating the conduct of
the officials of the provincial board of revenue. The board protested the
selection of Manso on the grounds that he had served on the body in
1828 and should therefore be disqualified from the investigation.35In
February'the administrativecouncil honored the board's protest by dismissing Manso from the special commission. The surgeon asserted that
four members of the administrative council had earlier served on the
board of revenue and feared that their abuseswould be uncovered.36
Be that as it may, a newly appointed commission revealed that Manso
had become the creditor of the provincial treasury in the amount of ninety-nine contos (U.S. $75,240), almost a third of the provincial debt.3"
Manso'snotes on the treasury were in the form of scrip given to soldiers
and public employees in lieu of salaries.During the 1820s wealthy individuals purchased such scrip from desperate soldiers at only five percent of the face value, and then demanded full payment or offered to donate the scrip to the provincial treasury in return for an honorary title
from the emperor. A military engineer engaged in a statisticalstudy of the
province criticized an unnamedsurgeon-major,who could only have been
Manso, for these and other financial abuses.38Some of Manso's credits
may have taken the form of promissory notes drawn on the national
33 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Ata of administrativecouncil (copy), Cuiabi, Oct. 13, 1832,
accompanyingCorr&ada Costa to Coutinho, Cuiabi, Nov. 7, 1832.
34 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: RepresentafJo from Manso to Joio Vieira de Carvalho,
Cuiabi, July 22, 1825.
35 APEMT, caixa 1833: Board of revenue to Correa da Costa, Cuiabi, Feb. 13, 1833.
36 AN-SM, pasta
IJJ9527: Manso to Vergueiro, Cuiabi, Mar. 1, 1833.
37 V[irgilio] Corr&aFilho, Evolu.Jo do Erdrio (Sio Paulo, 1925), 51n. Conversion
of contos into United States dollars is based on the 1833 exchange rate listed in Julian
Smith Duncan, Public and Private Operation of Railways in Brazil (New York, 1932), 183.
38 Alincourt, "Rezultadodos trabalhos,"111n-112n.As a deputy, Manso later asked the
imperial government to honor notes on the Mato Grosso treasury amounting to 103 contos. Annaes do ParlamentoBrazileiro. Cdmarados Srs. Deputados, 20 Anno da 3a Legislatura,Sessio de 1835 (July 14), Tomo II, 73. Apparently the debt was not paid, for at his
death in 1848 Manso left notes totaling 134 contos. Magalhies, "Biographiade Antonio
Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso,"88.
404
treasury. In November 1831 the imperial government undertook to relieve the financialcrisisof Mato Grosso by permitting the provincialboard
of revenue to issue such notes in return for cash loans; capitalists who
provided loans to the provincial government could redeem the notes in
Rio de Janeiro at eight percent interest, thereby reaping a substantial
profit without riskingtheir capital.39Given the decadentstate of the
pasta IJJ9 505: Correa da Costa to Coutinho, Cuiabi, Mar. 3, 1832; and
JoaquimFerreiraMoutinho, Noticia sobre a Provincia de Matto Grosso, Seguida d'um Roteiro da Viagemda Sua Capitald S. Paulo (Sio Paulo, 1869),64.
40 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Manso to Vergueiro, Cuiabi, Mar. 1, 1833.
RoN L. SECKINGER
405
ported to President Correa da Costa on April 15, 1833, and the administrative council took steps to prevent such an uprising.45Although the
night passed without incident, Correa da Costa despaired of calming the
province. Troubled by chronic ailments, he decided not to wait for the
imperialgovernment to act on his request to be relieved of the presidency.
On April 19 he retired to his fazenda. As the member of the administrative council who had received the most votes in the last election, Andr6
Gaudie Ley assumed the administration of the province as vice-president. A native of Goias, Gaudie had migrated to Cuiabi during the first
decade of the century. There he had married the sister of Joio Poupino
Caldas and established himself as one of the wealthiest merchants of the
region. After independence he was a key political figure and served as
vice-president from January 1830 till April 1831.46 During his second
term as vice-president, Gaudie emerged as principal leader of the traditional elite.
On assuming the administrationof the province, Gaudie advised the
Minister of Empire that a certain faction was "courting popularity by
proclaiming a boundless persecution of the adopted Brazilians,"and he
predicted "the loss of many families" in an imminent civil war.47Gaudie's letter, written while the rebel friar Innocentes tarried in Cuiabi,
indicates that an opposition party espousing Lusophobia had already
formed. Soon afterwards, elections for several posts demonstrated the
growing influence of the nativistsand prompted more energetic efforts to
purge them from public office.
Elections for the general and administrativecouncils, and for the province's sole representativeto the Chamber of Deputies in Rio de Janeiro,
took place in May. On the appointed day for tabulatingthe votes for deputy, the municipal council of the capital had not received the electoral
returns from the county (municipio) of Diamantino. Dominated by the
nativists, the Cuiabaicamara counted the returns from the other two
municipios and declared Patricio Manso the winner.48 The nativists
also captured several seats on the general and administrative councils
45 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiabi, Apr. 15,
1833,accompanyingGaudie to Vergueiro (No. 12), Cuiabi, Apr. 27, 1833.
46 Jose de Mesquita, "O capitio-mor Andre Gaudie Ley e a sua descendencia (Ensaio
de reconstituiq~o historico-genealogica)," RIHMT, Ano III, Tomos 5-6 (1922), 27-50.
47AN-SM, pastaIJJ9505: Gaudie to Vergueiro (No. 12), Cuiabi,
Apr. 27, 1833.
48APEMT, caixa 1833: "Acta da
apuraqio Geral dos Votos dos Collegios Eleitoraes
de :oda a Provincia para o Deputado, que deve reprezentar a mesma" (copy), Ms, Cuiabs, May 30, 1833. The three counties were Cuiabi, Mato Grosso, and Diamantino. In
1831 the imperial government created the municipio of Pocond, but the first municipal
council was not installed until July 1833, after the elections for provincial offices had
taken place.
406
RoN L. SECKINGER
407
were stirring up trouble among the troops.52Acting on Gaudie's instructions, a justice of the peace investigated Manso's official conduct in July
and sentenced the delinquent secretary to pay a fine and to spend a month
in jail. Manso claimed immunity as deputy-elect to the Chamber,53 and
the authorities made no attempt to arrest him. His suspension from the
secretarialpost remained in effect, however, and the administrativecouncil refused to authorize the travel allowance that would permit him to
take his seat in the Chamber.Moreover, in filling two vacancies the council passed over Manso a third time and selected two Adotivos, both of
whom were ineligible by virtue of their membershipon the general council. Manso continued to appeal to the Minister of Empire for imperial
intervention on his behalf.54
The issue of nativism became paramount as the struggle between the
two factions progressed. In March 1833 the Caramuru party in Minas
Gerais launched a rebellion, ostensibly to protest persecution by the Regency. Although the uprising was suppressed after two months, those
who longed for the return of Pedro I did not lose hope. In June the prominent Caramuruleader Ant6nio Carlos de Andrada journeyed to Europe
to confer with the ex-emperor and thereby convinced many Brazilians
that another restorationist coup was in the offing. News of these events
heightened the power struggle in Mato Grosso. In August Manso founded
and was elected president of a club called the Society of the Zealots of Independence, patterned after the nativist organizations that had sprung
up throughout Brazil since the last years of the First Empire. The club
proposed to unite "true Brazilians"in "mutual assistance to insure the
independence of Brazil, and to pose legal resistance to tyranny wherever
it is found."55 The Portuguese residents of Cuiabaicountered shortly
52
AN-SM, pasta IJJ5 16: Portaria of Gaudie to Cuiabi cimara (copy), Cuiabi, June
17, 1833, accompanying Cuiabai camara to Ant6nio Pinto Chichorro da Gama, Mar.
18, 1834. AN-SM, pasta IJ1 918: Gaudie to Carneiro Leio (No. 20), Cuiabi, June 27,
1833.
5' Cart6rio do Segundo Oficio, Cuiabi: "Notas Geraes," Ms, Livro 4 (1830-1834), fls.
141-142.
54 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiabi,
July 8, 1833,
accompanying Gaudie to Vergueiro, Cuiaba, July 23, 1833. AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Manso
to Vergueiro, Cuiabi, July 31, 1833. The Minister of Empire removed Manso from the
post of secretary on July 9, but the decree did not arrive in Cuiabi until September. ANSM, pasta IJJ9 505: Gaudie to Aureliano de Sousa e Oliveira Coutinho, Cuiaba, Sept.
28, 1833. Manso's removal probably stemmed from his association with Innocentes. A few
weeks previously, the Minister of Empire had instructed Corria da Costa to chastise the
friar for his part in the Rio Negro rebellion and had mentioned that Manso was the
priest's
intermediary. Decree No. 314, June 15, 1833, Collecgfo das Decisies do Governo do
Imperio do Brasil de 1833 (Rio de Janeiro, 1873), 219.
55 "Estatutos da Sociedade dos Zellosos da Independencia installada na cidade de Cui-
408
RONL. SECKINGER
409
410
Miranda, was installed as the first district judge (juiz de direito) of the
province, having been appointed to that post by the Regency.66 On the
complaint of an Adotivo, who asserted that Miranda had been guilty of
misconduct while serving as municipal judge, the administrativecouncil
suspendedMirandain early March.The Society of the Zealots of Independence sponsored protest demonstrations,which resulted in an assault on
the Adotivo and a shower of stones for the municipal guardsmen who
tried to restore order.7'With the nativistson the offensive, the older leadershipwas further shakenby the defection of Joio Poupino Caldas.
Poupino was not above anti-Portuguesesentiment,if Manso'scharges of
1825 may be credited, and he was the hero of the troops who demandedthe
removal of all Adotivo office-holdersin 1831. Yet he had constantly sided
with his brother-in-law Gaudie and the traditional elite against the challengers to the established order. Poupino's conversion to nativism took
place between February and April 1834 and was probably facilitated by
the departureof his arch-enemy, Manso. In early May Poupino protested
the imperialgovernment's appointmentof an Adotivo to the post of fiscal
officer (procuradorfiscal) of the provincial treasury,arguing that such an
appointment would further increase tensions. The administrativecouncil
narrowly voted to comply with the instructions from Rio de Janeiro.
Poupino and the Society of the Zealots of Independence staged a mass
demonstration and submitted a petition expressing disapproval of the
appointment. Under this pressure, the council capitulated and removed
the Adotivo from his post. That night Poupino furnished food and drink
to an exultant crowd gathered in front of his home.""8
Frightened by the militancy of the nativists, Gaudie and two comrades
abandoned their seats on the administrativecouncil, leaving their opponents in control. On May 10 Correa da Costa summoned the body to discuss an anonymous message warning of an imminent rebellion-by the national guard against the Adotivos. Predictably, in view of the nativist
66 CD-DA-SH,
RON L. SECKINGER
411
domination of the council, that body decided that the message "should
be given no consideration.""6
Rumors of conspiraciesby the pro-Portuguese faction spurred the nativists to conceive their own plot. During the annual celebration of the
Feast of the Holy Spirit, the Adotivos and the Brazilianswere to sit at
separatetables. According to one nativist leader, a scheme to poison the
food of the native-born was discovered before the meal began.70 Another
rumor prophesied the use of the municipal guard by the Portuguese to
seize control of the capital. Relations between the municipal- and national-guard units were so strained that Correa da Costa mustered all
troops to hear a proclamationby which he hoped to settle differences. But
afterwards Poupino sabotaged the reconciliation attempt by treating the
nationalguardsmento refreshmentsat his home.71
On May 24 the ailing Correa da Costa again surrenderedthe presidency. Two days later the administrativecouncil decided that Poupino should
assume command of the province as vice-president.72 With Poupino occupying the post of chief executive, the nativistscontrolled the entire provincial and municipal governmental apparatus.
The tragic dinouement of the politics of nativism came on the evening
of May 30, 1834, when severalnativistsled the national-guardtroops, who
were quickly joined by vagrants, artisans,and other elements of the urban poor, in an assault on the homes and shops of the Portuguese-born
residents of Cuiabai.The precipitating incident was a rumor that masked
Adotivos had attempted to assassinatetwo officers of the national guard.73
The rioters demanded that all Adotivos under the age of sixty be expelled
from the province within twenty-four hours.74 Although the administrative council accepted this demand, the nativists proceeded with a systematic elimination of their opponents. The insurgents remained in com69 Ata of
administrative council, Cuiabi, May 10, 1834, published in "Documentos
sobre a Rusga," 171.
70 AN-SM, pasta IG1 260: Euzebio Luiz de Britto to Jose Manoel Alves Ferreira, Cuiabs, June 15, 1834, accompanying Joaquim Jose de Almeida to Antero Jose Ferreira de
Brito, Mato Gross, July 26, 1834. The letter is published in "Centenario da 'Rusga,' " 149152.
71 IHGB-A, lata 168, doc. 8: "Manifesto dos
acontecimentos," Ms, fl. 2.
72 Atas of administrative
council, Cuiabi, May 24 and 26, 1834, published in "Documentos sobre a Rusga," 172-173.
73 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 497: Poupino to Alencastro, Cuiabi, June 16, 1834, accompanying
Jose Rodrigues Jardim to Chichorro da Gama, Goiis, July 14, 1834. AN-SM, pasta IG1
260: Britto to Alves Ferreira, Cuiabai, June 15, 1834,
accompanying Almeida to Ferreira
de Brito, Mato Grosso, July 26, 1834.
74 Ata of administrative council, Cuiabai, May 30, 1834, published in "Centenario da 'Rusga,' " 147-148.
412
mand of the capital and much of the province for three months, during
which time they murdered thirty Adotivos and three Braziliansand committed numerous other crimes, including rape, robbery, and extortion.75
Once the uprising began, Poupino shrankfrom the violence of the rioting mob. As vice-president he fronted for the nativist leaders for three
months, but ultimately he betrayed them to the new provincial president,
Ant6nio Pedro de Alencastro. By the beginning of November, the nativist leadershipand hordes were dispersed, in hiding or in jail. Except for
brief periods of imprisonment, none of the principal nativists was ever
punished by the authorities.Poupino, however, was assassinatedin 1837,
apparently because of his betrayal of his former comrades.All of the rioters condemned to capital punishment managed to escape from the Mato
Grosso jail and flee to Bolivia, so that not a single person was executed for
having participatedin the murdersof May-September 1834. A few soldiers
and vagrantssentenced to forced labor paid by themselves the debt owed
to the victims of the politics of nativism.76
IV.
The abdication of Pedro I was the first link in the chain of events leading to the bloody catharsisof 1834. Verbal abuse, discrimination,and violence manifested the long-standing hatred of the Portuguese-born. Lusophobia furnished a simple explanation for the economic and political
uncertainties of the day. Although Lusophobia appealed to individuals
from various social stations, the soldiers were particularly receptive. The
miserable troops of Mato Grosso found in the Adotivo a scapegoat for
their grievances,and their insurrectionscontributed to the tension.
But in 1833 what had begun as ethnic prejudice became a political
movement: Lusophobia yielded nativism. Outsiders like Patricio Manso
and Paschoal Domingues de Miranda joined discontented locals to challenge the wealthy merchantsand landowners who had dominated Cuiabk
since the colonial era. The challengers sought political control of the
75 CD-DA-SH, 1835, amarrado D, mago 2, pasta 4: Alencastro to Oliveira Coutinho
(No. 8), Cuiabai, Oct. 31, 1834. [Leverger], "Apontamentos cronol6gicos," 350, also gives
in
thirty-three as the total number of victims. A cross-check of all the names mentioned
the documents substantiates this figure. Other authors have suggested that the dead numbered in the hundreds, explaining away lesser estimates as the attempt of contemporaries to
conceal the extent of the massacre. See Taunay, "A cidade de Matto-Grosso," 99; and Oc-
RON
L.
SECKINGER
413
province and the power, prestige, and financial opportunity that public
office offered. Fear of a restorationist coup, combined with traditional
anti-Portuguese sentiment, supplied an ideology that justified a struggle
against the incumbent leadership, and the Regency's alarumsof a Caramuru plot gave a quasi-official sanction to nativist agitation. Brazilianborn membersof the elite could be tarredwith the same brush as the Portuguese, and thus the nativists could dispute the loyalty of the entire traditionalelite. The Society of the Zealots of Independence provided
a formal organization for mobilizing popular support and for disseminating nativist propaganda. Real or rumored acts of violence by Adotivos
precipitatedthe uprising of May 30.77
The shock troops of the Rusga came from the soldiers, the poor, and
the drifters of Cuiabi, eager to vent their frustrations on the Adotivos,
convenient symbols of the privileges of wealth and class. Riot and pillage
offered the urban poor an occasion, albeit a brief one, to break out of the
narrow circle of their misery and to register their discontent by the only
means available.7"Approximately 109 persons were charged with crimes
apparently connected with the nativist uprising in Cuiabaiand in subsequent outbreaks in Diamantino and Miranda; eleven of these may be
classifiedas leaders.Personal information concerning the remaining ninety-eight is spotty, but suggests that the rioters were of the poorer classes. The documents identify ten artisans,ten soldiers,three soldier-artisans,
and four women; seven of the soldiers were periquitos exiled from Bahia.
The other rioters were presumablyvagrantsor other marginaltypes. Forty-seven persons are listed as being of mixed racial origin (pardos, cabras,
caboclos, caburis), twenty-three as whites, and nine as Negroes (of whom
only one, apparently, was a slave). Most were natives of Mato Grosso; at
least nine were from Bahia, and one was Italian-born. Their ages ranged
from nineteen to sixty.79
77 The process by which prejudice led to violence in Mato Grosso closely followed the
sequence described by Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (abridged ed.; Garden
City, N.Y., 1958), 57-58.
78 For parallels with mass violence in Europe, see George Rud', The Crowd in His-
tory. A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730-1848 (New York,
1964) and Paris and London in the Eighteenth Century. Studies in Popular Protest (New
York, 1971); and Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels, chap. 7, "The City Mob."
79 No exact listing of the rebels has been located, but cross-checking of archival sources
yielded 109 names. This total may be incomplete, or it may be slightly inflated due to a
lack of clarity in the lists. The major documents are as follows: AN-SM, pasta IJ1 918:
List of persons under prosecution, Cuiabai, Oct. 23, 1834, accompanying Alencastro to
Oliveira Coutinho, Cuiabi, Nov. 4, 1834; "Mappa demonstrativo dos Reos pronunciados
neste 1" Destricto do Termo da Villa do Diamantino, durante o ultimo Trimestre de
1834," Ms, Dec. 18, 1834, and list of persons under prosecution, Cuiabai, Dec. 30, 1834,
accompanying Alencastro to Oliveira Coutinho (No. 20), Cuiabi, Jan. 5, 1835; "Rellagqo
414
Mato Grosso historians frequently absolve the nativist leaders of responsibility for the excesses of the Rusga, suggesting that the leaders desired only the expulsion of the Adotivos but lost control of the hordes
that had been aroused by nativist propaganda. These historians demonstrate, quite correctly, that the phenomenon of Lusophobia was widespread in Brazil;but some of them also argue that the Rusga was actually
the work of outsiders like Manso and the Bahian periquitos.s0In view of
the documented participationin the Rusga by the local nativists-notably
Caetano da Silva e Albuquerque and Caetano Xavier da Silva Pereirasuch absolution seems unwarranted.81 The nativists apparently preferred a more definitive elimination of the Portuguese than mere expulsion.
In their goal of overturning the traditional elite, the nativists were
eminently successful, for the Rusga occasioned substantial alterations in
the leadership of the province. The Portuguese-born merchants, landowners, and military officerswho had exercised tremendouseconomic and
political influence in Cuiabaiprior to 1834 were, for the most part, eliminated from politics. Even those who survived the bloodshed were relucant to enter the political maelstorm again. Jer6nimo Joaquim Nunes, for
example, retired to his fazenda following the alleged conspiracy of November 1833; he resumed his duties as commander-of-armsin 1836, but
never again held civil posts or participated in politics."2The Portuguese families who had fled to Goiis when the uprising began did not begin to return to Cuiabaiuntil November 1835, more than a year after the
nativists were scattered."3Another three years passed before the surviving Portuguese and their families were reintegrated into the social life of
dos individuos que forio Pronunciados por este Juizo de Paz do lo Districto da Cidade
de Cuyabaino primeirotrimeste do anno de 1835,"Ms, Mar. 31, 1835,accompanying Alencastro to Manoel Alves Branco (No. 41), Cuiabi, Apr. 26, 1835. APEMT, caixa 1836:
"Rellaqio dos Prezos que Existem na Emdiovia Poblica desta Cidade," Ms, Cuiabi, Feb.
16, 1836. APEMT, caixa 1837: "Mappa dos Criminozos Sentenciados pelo Tribunal do
Jury destaCapital,"Ms, Cuiabai,Sept. 30, 1837.
80Philog6nio Correa, "A significaSqo da rusga," RIHMT, Ano XVI, Tomos 31-32
(1934), 20; Firmo Rodrigues, "O elemento portugues na capitania de Matto Grosso,"
ibid., 56; and Jose de Mesquita, "Espirito matogrossense,"Cultura Politica, II, No. 13
(Mar. 1942), 63. Mendonqa,O Tigre de Cuiabd,42, blames the uprising on the climate of
fear created by the Regency's warningof a plot to restorePedro I to the throne.
are the
81sThe major sources for reconstructing the role of the nativist leadership
depositionsin "Inquerito,"Oct. 10, 1834,publishedin "Centenarioda 'Rusga.'"1
82 Joio Barbosa de Faria, "Apontamentos para a biographia do Brigadeiro Jeronymo
JoaquimNunes," RIHMT, Ano XII, Tomos 23-24 (1930), 8.
83 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 506: Alencastro to Silva e Souza (Nos. 78 and 83), Cuiabi, Nov.
2 and 20, 1835.
RON L. SECKINGER
415
the capital, for only in 1838 did they consent to attend public celebrations
again."4
10
1835," Ms, Mar. 31, 1835, accompanying Alencastro to Branco (No. 41), Cuiabai, Apr. 26,
416
political system for granted and to have attempted to work within the
establishedframework rather than to subvert it. The politics of nativism
in Mato Grosso fed on old hatredsbetween two distinct ethnic or cultural
groups. But the central issue was a power struggle in which an aggressive
counter-elite sought to displacethe old leadershipof the province.
The use of ethnic prejudice to advance personal or group interests is
by no meansunique to Mato Grosso. Indeed, aggrandizementin one form
or another may be considered an integral part of the concept of nativism
as historiansuse the term.89Where Brazil-and Mexico-differed was in
the choice of victims. Braziliannativism during the early nineteenth century did not strike at a newly arrived immigrant group totally isolated
from the dominant culture, but at a minority that had enjoyed a privileged position in the colonial era and appeared to do so after independence. Thus, Braziliannativism must be seen within the context of building a new nation. The assaulton the Portuguese-born extended the thrust
of the independence movement and represented a rejection of a portion
of Brazil's cultural heritage. Nativism gave expression to an emergent
nationalismand aided in the definition of what it meant to be a "Brazilian."
RONL. SECKINGER
University of North Carolina,ChapelHill