Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

NOTES 227
28 A.P.D.G., Sketches of Portuguese Life, Manners, Costume, and Character (London, 1826), pp. 304–6, quoted by
Holloway, ‘A Healthy Terror’, p. 646.
29 F.J.Denis, Histoire et description du Brésil (Paris: F.Didot frères, 1839), p. 147; see original French extract at
http://home.worldnet.fr/~polbrian/Ribeyrol.html [accessed 08.01.2002]; see also M.Abreu, O Império do Divino
(Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1999), p. 91.
30 Soares, A capoeira escrava, pp. 88, 94, 111. This author suggests that the jack knife was a status symbol slaves
wanted to possess. According to Holloway, ‘Healthy Terror’, p. 647, the sovelão, ‘a type of dagger shaped like a
large awl’, ‘was a favorite weapon of capoeiras in this period’.
31 Soares, A capoeira escrava, p. 180.
32 Soares, A capoeira escrava, pp. 109–10 and C.E.L.Soares, Zungú: rumor de muitas vozes (Rio de Janeiro:
Arquivo Publico do Estado, 1998).
33 Adolfo Morales de los Rios was one of the most prominent advocates of this thesis. See O Rio de Janeiro, p. 72.
34 Soares, A capoeira escrava, pp. 177–8.
35 See the sample of 20 capoeiras in Soares, A capoeira escrava, p. 91.
36 Another evidence for the existence of gangs is the police report about a free creole, described as a ‘chief of
capoeiras’ and accused of being a ‘seducer’ of slaves. See Soares, Capoeira escrava, p. 83.
37 For instance Araújo, Abordagens, p. 164.
38 Holloway, ‘A Healthy Terror’, pp. 647–8; Soares, A capoeira escrava, pp. 323–36.
39 Holloway, ‘A Healthy Terror’, p. 651; Soares, A capoeira escrava, p. 190.
40 Soares, A capoeira escrava, p. 122.
41 Holloway, Policing, p. 211 and ‘A Healthy Terror’, p. 656. Numbers for 1865 are, however, much lower.
42 Soares, Capoeira escrava, pp. 79, 87, 187, 249.
43 Holloway, ‘A Healthy Terror’, p. 649. Feijó also limited punishments administered on behalf of slave owners to
50 lashes and extinguished the chain gangs (libambos). Idem, and Soares, Capoeira escrava, pp. 106, 108.
44 Holloway, ‘A Healthy Terror’, pp. 652–3.
45 For more details on Rio’s jails, see Holloway, Policing, pp. 54–7, Karasch, Slave Life, pp. 118–26 and Soares,
Capoeira escrava.
46 Soares, Capoeira escrava, pp. 261, 285.
47 Soares, Capoeira escrava, p. 86.
48 C.Ribeyrolles, Brasil pitoresco. História-descrições-viagens-instituições-colonização (Belo Horizonte: Itatiaia,
1980). For the English translation I used the original French version available at: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/
polbrian/Ribeyrol.html
49 Araújo, Abordagens, pp. 148–50.
50 This affirmation is based on interviews with M.João Pequeno, João Grande, and Boca Rica who all describe the
existence of some basic capoeira movements in their regions of origin.
51 C.Expilly, Le Brésil tel qu’il est (Paris, 1962), as reproduced at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/polbrian/expilly.htm
52 Soares, Capoeira, pp. 83, 191–2.
53 A.J.de Mello Moraes Filho, Festas e tradições populares do Brasil (Belo Horizonte: Itatiaia, EDUSP, 1979),
p. 260. A similar description is provided by de los Rios, Rio de Janeiro, p. 73.
54 Chvaicer, ‘The Criminalization’, pp. 525, 541.
55 The only evidence given in support of her claim seems to be a quote she misinterpreted: the capoeiras were attracted
to the masses, ‘just as a moth is attracted to light’, not the other way round. See Chvaicer, ‘The Criminalization’,
p. 539 and C.E.L.Soares, A negregada instituição. Os capoeiras no Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro: Prefeitura da
Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, 1994), p. 74.
56 Machado de Assis, Crônicas, 1859–1888 (Porto Alegre: Jackson, 1944), Vol. 4, p. 228.
57 Soares, A capoeira, p. 85.
58 L.S.Dias, Quem tem medo da capoeira? Rio de Janeiro, 1890–1904 (Rio de Janeiro: Arquivo Geral da Cidade do
Rio de Janeiro, 2001), p. 118.
59 Holloway, ‘A Healthy Terror’, p. 660.