Family Networks, Seigneurial Authority, and Property Rights: the Disputes of Dona Antônia De Vera Cruz Braque (sergipe, 1826–1828)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The disputes involving Dona Antônia de Vera Cruz Braque, a widowed landowner and slaveholder, serve as the starting point for the analysis proposed in the present article. The objective is to understand the foundations of her lawsuits and their relation to property rights, power dynamics in a slaveholding agrarian society, along with the consolidation and the exercise of seigniorial authority by a woman. Therefore, we will examine a diverse set of documents, including probate records, petitions, and legal proceedings, which will be analyzed qualitatively, in line with the premises of a Social History of Property (Congost, 2007; Pedroza, 2020) and a Feminist Social History (Tilly, 1994). The aim is to discuss the constitutive aspects of seigniorial authority based on land ownership, specified through a gender lens, as well as the dynamics and conflicts involving possessions, powers, and trajectories within the structures of colonial society.
Source: Baraúnas Revista de História
Language: English
Topic: History of Colonial Brazil
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Universidade Federal de Sergipe
OpenAlex ID: W7165409294