Pandemic, Hunger and Environment in the Ancient Colonial Agrarian System

Salvador da Bahia, 18th Century

Abstract

In 20222 we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Maria Yedda Leite Linhares. Historian, activist, woman, northeastern, from Ceará State, who fought against a brutal Dictatorship, between 1964 and 1979 – until Amnesty – and opened space for women in a deeply masculinized field of Contemporary History at the former FnFi – Faculdade Nacional de Filosofia , future University of Brazil, today UFRJ. Later, in 1976, still facing the Dictatorship, on his return from Exile, he opened a new field of study in Brazil: Agrarian History.

This article – in a very brief and precarious way – intends to pay homage to Maria Yedda Linhares, resuming some of her main theses, against the “main stream” of the powerful traditional Brazilian historiography. Having as field of study the Recôncavo do Bahia, Salvador and its villages, we seek to demonstrate that a univocal colonial landscape around the Engenho, the sugar plantation and its slaves, with the hiding of the poor, small production and the production of internal supply da Colonia is a mistaken view of the economic and social life of colonial Brazil.