The literate minorities at the end of the colonial period and the transition to the empire: A study on social history and education in Brazil

Abstract

This paper discusses the influence of events of the history of education in Brazil on the social sphere in the period between the expulsion of the Jesuits from Brazil and the promulgation of the Saraiva Act at the end of the imperial period, which prohibited the illiterate from voting because their right to vote was seen as an obstacle to the consolidation of the system of parliamentary representation. This is done on the methodological basis of the historiography of education in Brazil and of sociological studies on the literate population in England from the 17th to the 19th century. The paper concludes that it is pertinent to use regression analysis of historical data from 1872 onwards in order to investigate the demographic composition of illiteracy in the Brazilian population in the previous decades, also because in Brazil the public archives containing documents about this topic, which are presented here, have not been surveyed yet.

Key words: history of Education, social history, literacy, illiteracy, historical regression of indicators.