Abstract
The text aims to explore expectations generated by the owners of the province of Maranhão with the Liberal Revolution of 1820, especially related to labor, an issue that included themes such as slavery, free labor, taxation, British politics and national sovereignty. To this end, even considering the broader movement of printed works published in Maranhão or about Maranhão since 1821, it takes as its guiding thread the leaflet called Critical-political Mirror of the province of Maranhão, printed by João Antonio Garcia de Abranches, in 1822, by consider it representative of such expectations. Furthermore, the choice of this text and author enhances approximations with the time of Independences in ways that are still unexplored, and that involve a certain memory about the character. Along this path, It initially addresses the author’s biographical aspects and some elements about the production and reception of the leaflet; then, it proposes an interpretation of the narrative developed in the leaflet, in dialogue with other texts published in Maranhão and in Lisbon, and with the debates in the Portuguese Courts, instituted in January 1821; finally, it brings closer biography and work, to explore the uses of the publication of fragments of the text, on the occasion of its centenary, in 1922.
KEYWORDS:
Revolutions; liberalism; property; Independence of Brazil; historiography; memory