Paper short abstract:

This work deals with ideas of citizenship in the hinterland of Brazil's Empire. The paper takes issue with the traditional conception of the Brazilian hinterland as a non-civilized space by focusing on the meaning of the judicial system for the society in these areas.

Paper long abstract:

It is common in Brazilian historiography to picture the Brazilian hinterland (sertão) as an area opposed to development and distant from civilized society. Although this conception of hinterland has attracted many followers since Brazil's colonial period, one should not forget that the country as a whole experienced in the 19th century changes and processes typical of state-building. The aim of territorial unity required several mechanisms of state power consolidation not only in central areas and cities, but also in the distant backlands. In particular, the judicial system is very much present in this dynamics not only as a means to implement the monopoly of violence by the state, but also as a vehicle of citizenship to people who applied the law as well as to ordinary claimants. Our study of judicial sources examines more broadly the judiciary's organization in the hinterland. Through them we could relate the ideal of justice inscribed in the penal code with actual judicial practices as they were performed in these areas. In the data collected for Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte provinces we could see that, although not without its fair amount of difficulties, access to justice was not restricted to the main centers of the young nation. The judicial system did reach the hinterland areas, influencing interpersonal relations and inducing changes in social behavior. Ultimately, forums for negotiation and exercise of citizenship were created in places that were not, perhaps, supposed to be so "civilized".