Among the hinterlands of Porto da Folha/Sergipe, in the 17th – 19th centuries

Abstract

The formation of the Brazilian agrarian structure is based on land concentration originated from the colonial period with the sesmarias policy and reaffirmed by the Land Law of 1850. Based on the premise of inseparability between time and space and on the foundations of Historical Geography, this This article seeks to analyze the transformations that took place in the socio-spatial configuration of Porto da Folha between the 17th and 19th centuries. This study allowed us to unravel the economic, political, military and symbolic projects at stake that, in different ways, sought to consolidate. As well as class interests, diverse political and economic conceptions, private or state power relations and the resistance of marginalized groups that become evident in spatial forms. We found that the corrals set in the vast Sertão do São Francisco Sergipano shaped the formation of its agrarian space, as well as influenced the social relations established between the great cattle ranchers and the other inhabitants who populated this region.