A escravidão no Brasil colonial nos livros didáticos de 6ª série

Abstract

Current essay analyzes how slavery and the Negro slave are represented in History school textbooks of the 2nd Form of the Junior High School, and investigate whether their ideas lead towards a specific type of reading on slavery during colonial times. Textbooks adopted by public government schools under the administration of the Education Nucleus of Cianorte PR Brazil were selected and surveyed. Analysis has been organized according to two main axes: the historiographic trajectory of slavery in Brazil during the colonial period and an analysis of how slavery and the Negro slave are represented in the selected school textbooks. The above aspects were based on the works of historians, with special reference to Caio Prado Júnior, Gilberto Freyre and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, who analyzed Portuguese colonialism and slavery in Brazil and who were highly influential on contemporary Brazilian historiography. Current investigation shows changes in historiography. This is due to the fact that during the last decades historians shifted from the study of structural and long-duration history, such as slavery, to individuals, or the slaves themselves.