School and racial status in Cachoeira do Campo, MG in the nineteenth century.

Abstract

In Minas Gerais there was a predominance of black people in elementary schools according to the population records of 1830s. In this article, we investigate the significance of these experiences confronting census documents from the district of Cachoeira do Campo/MG, located near Ouro Preto, in the central region of the province of Minas. Cachoeira do Campo has census documents resulting from two population countings that occurred in the years 1831 and 1838. The procedure consisted in separating households whose children, in 1831, attended school. Then, these households were identified in the documents of 1838 and we analyzed the situation of the educated individuals and their family group. The seven-year interval between the documents allowed the assessment of the impact of school experience, revealing, among other things, that educated blacks were preferably designated as pardos and they could change their racial status, and were even classified as white classified as white.