[The suicide of slaves in São Paulo during the last two decades of slavery].
News stories printed in Gazeta de Campinas (1871-1887) are used to investigate the views expressed at the time of the suicides of captives and freedmen in São Paulo province, and to discuss the data available. As suicide is a form of human behavior which cannot be reduced to one single explanation, it does not seem justifiable that amongst the slaves, these cases should also be taken as self-explanatory because of the conditions in which they occurred. By noting the circumstances in which these acts took place, it is hoped that the fallacy of oversimplified explanations can be belied, which refer to the suicide of slaves as quite simply being due to a 'dislike of captivity'.
Oliveira
Saulo Veiga
SV
Faculdade de Ciências Medicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (FCM Unicamp), Rua Presidente Prudente, 420/31 Jardim Alto da Barra, 13090-820 Campinas, SP, Brasil. sauveiga@yahoo.com.br
Oda
Ana Maria Galdini Raimundo
AM
D001938:Brazil; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media / Q000266:history; D009524:Newspapers as Topic / Q000266:history; D012042:Registries; D012940:Social Problems / Q000266:history*; D013405:Suicide / Q000266:history*; D014505:Urban Population / Q000266:history