A visita de “Sua Magestade o Imperador” e os pedidos de perdão de presos da Cadeia Civil de Porto Alegre

Abstract

Passing through Porto Alegre on his way to Uruguaiana, on the occasion of the Paraguayan War, D. Pedro II visited the civil jail of the capital of the Province of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul, on July 21, 1865. The presence of the Emperor encouraged quickly some defendants resorting to the petitioner appeal, both to prepare and to make a petition for free. This article examines precisely the requests for forgiveness arising from this so-called effect, from the difficulties faced in gathering the necessary documents, through the profile of the sentenced, to the supplicant language. From the documentary traces raised in the Rio Grande do Sul Historical Archives Requirement Fund (AHRS), it was realized that the poor, illiterate and socially marginalized prisoners of the past not only read the context in which they lived and petitioned, as they were aware of their civil and political rights, not infrequently pressuring for their fulfillment, especially when they understood or thought they were the defendant of justice.