Biographical Research Methods: A Case Study of a “Man of Color” from the Post-Abolition Era

Abstract

This article uses the experience of researching the life of a “man of color” – who was born after the free womb law (1871) and lived into the mid-twentieth century – to demonstrate how historians can combine primary sources with methodologies to build biographies. The paper is divided into four sections: it first illustrates the importance of understanding Black individuals from that era as part of a subaltern category. In the second part, it outlines strategies that can enable researchers to extract novel meaning from primary sources, such as the Black press in São Paulo, that have already seen extensive use. It then provides practical examples of how other textual and visual documents unveil the concealed presence of individuals of color in the past. After considering the field of historical biography’s ongoing debates, it concludes that studies employing microhistorical methods have the distinct capacity to center agency in ways that complement macro-historical interpretations.