“To the pinnacles of the sierra, invading the hinterland”: Theodoro Sampaio and the invention of Brazil's merdional boundaries in the IHGSP Journal for a black intellectual (1896-1912)

Abstract

The rising of the republican period was marked by an intense debate over the making of narratives that could forge the identity of the states using historical pieces that outlined the past and would legitimize the borders of the state's space. A privileged space in this debate was the historical and geographical institutes, institutions whose members would search for documents and expose their narratives. In this article, my scope is the work of the engineer Theodoro Sampaio in the IHGSP journal between 1896 and 1912. He was an important black intellectual who thought history as a tool to build Brazil's meridional boundaries.

Keywords:
Teodoro Sampaio; Black intellectual; IHGSP ; Meridional boundary