ABSTRACT

This article interrogates the problematic relation of whiteness and servitude in mid to late-nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro, when a fast-growing number of Portuguese female migrants, mostly from the Azorean islands, sought employment in households where domestic service had been hitherto associated with black slavery. As I argue, the accounts of elite domestic lives in popular print cultures at the time reveal a nascent narrative of ‘servant crisis’—e.g. the conviction that reliable servants were disappearing in Brazil – in reaction to the alternative work arrangements and new types of servants, which began defining domestic service over the decades leading toward the abolition of chattel slavery (1888). In fact, the vicissitudes of labor during these pre-emancipation decades set the stage for the earliest version of the ‘servant crisis’ trope that has characterized the national elites’ discourse about domesticity up to this day.

摘要

这篇文章探讨了 19 世纪中后期里约热内卢白人与奴役之间存在问题的关系，当时越来越多的葡萄牙女性移民（主要来自亚速尔群岛）在迄今为止与家政服务有关的家庭中寻找工作与黑人奴隶制。正如我所说，当时流行印刷文化中精英家庭生活的描述揭示了“仆人危机”的新生叙事——例如，相信可靠的仆人在巴西正在消失——这是对替代工作安排和新型仆人的反应，在导致动产奴隶制废除的几十年里开始定义家政服务（1888 年）。实际上，