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 Lucia Maria Bastos Pereira das Neves The forgotten in the independence process: a history to be made

Almanack, Guarulhos, n. 25, ef00220, 2020 http://doi.org/10.1590/2236-463325ef00220 of some pamphlet writers, representations they presented or the private letters they wrote can contribute a lot. In this case, we find the letters of Maria Barbara, the great lady of the mills from Bahia, which demonstrates the ease and originality of expression in a woman who was born into a family of the Portuguese rural aristocracy. Maria Barbara showed a strong personality and played a role that women are usually denied at the time. Able to quote Camões and reproduce Latin maxims, she knew the new concepts of the language of constitutionalism, such as homeland, nation, independence and constitutional power, and she did not hesitate to make her own decisions in difficult times without subjecting herself to the guidance of her children. Her letters also reveal the multiple independence that occurred, putting down the idea of a broader and more unified process in Brazil, through a friendly agreement between colony and metropolis. There is a description of a very complex reality in which, if at first Portuguese and Brazilian constitutionalists were united, later the divisions that go beyond the old dichotomy between Portuguese and Brazilians multiplied. Dichotomy that justified for many years the process of separation and constitution of the new Brazilian Empire. In addition, the letters still allow us to glimpse that Independence is not limited to September 7, but involves a process that started with the constitutional movement of 1820, which can be considered, in part, finalized in 1825 with the Recognition Treaty by Portugal of the new Empire. Therefore, they bring to light an unfriendly process, which involved the struggles and disputes, such as the wars of independence and the tension of the Confederation of 1824, despite the fact that many of these actors proclaimed that the union of the provinces came to represent the strength of the new Brazilian state.

Finally, it is important to insist on printed political pamphlets and the study of their writers. When transformed into instruments of public debate, such writings allowed the instruction of readers and Forum