Revisitando casas-grandes e senzalas: a arquitetura das plantations escravistas americanas no século XIX

Abstract

This article analyses the architectural plans of the Vale do Paraíba large slave coffee plantations (Brazil), of the Matanzas-Cienfuegos-Trinidad (Cuba) sugar plantations and of the Alabama and lower Mississipi Valley cotton plantations in the United States, all built in the first half of the 19th Century. The focus is cast on the relationship between the productive processes and the disposition of the master's big houses and slave quarters. The aim is to examine the respective weights that the architectural function and representation featured in the disposition of these spaces.