FIERCE, BRAWLING AND INSURGENT:

LOW RANKING POLICEMEN AND PERFORMANCES OF RACE AND GENDER IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Abstract

Based on police documents and newspapers from the 19th century, this article analyzes the actions of low-ranking police officers in Recife in the late 1800s. Given that these policemen were generally recruited among poor black men, the article inquires about the complexities related to the proximity between policed people and policemen. How did these police officers manage the authority of the uniform? What were the implications of their performances, in terms of race and gender, on the daily activity? These questions are fundamental for a good understanding of how the police structured itself in Brazil, nevertheless, these dimensions, especially the racial one, are seldom addressed in police studies. Here evidential paradigm and the games of scale are used as historiographical strategies. One of the main conclusions reached is that the uniform was activated by these black men as a way of negotiating and fighting racism.