Guerreiros do mar: recrutamento e resistência de crianças em Pernambuco (1857-1870)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the recruitment of children for the Navy Learners Company of Pernambuco, located in Recife, before and especially during the War of Paraguay, between the years 1857-1870. This was one of the ways found by the elites of wealth and power and the authorities of Pernambuco to insert, discipline and take out of the cities a childhood that needed care and investment, making it useful to themselves and to the State. Military service in the Navy gave occupation to a smaller set that was often distributed in urban space, committing robberies, disorders or insulting the established order. Taken ou from the cities, these children contributed to the training of sailors and workers to serve the Imperial Armada. The concepts of Biopower and disciplinary power of Michel Foucault have become indispensable for understanding the emergency of new political and social attitudes of the Brazilian State that were analyzed in this work. The dissertation was drawn from the analysis of documentary sources of the Docyard of the Navy of Pernambuco, specifically matches the Arsenal Inspector, which together with the laws of the Brazilian Empire, the ministerial reports and the help of the theoretical and thematic discussions are the pillars of this study. It is worth noting, too, that not all the boys wanted or fell into the strong disciplinary structure common to the military establishments of the nineteenth century period. This was an issue that was highlighted on the trails of the students of Learners Companies or the rejection of the boys, of different ages, showed the mesh responsible for the military recruitment.