Lamp he was the most famous cangaceiro chief that ever lived in the country and acted between 1922 and 1938. He was from a family of reasonable standing, but who had been dispossessed of everything by a dispute over land. Lampião led a group of men who terrorized the interior of the North East with your withdrawals. He was killed in an ambush in 1938.
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Summary about Lampião
He was born in Serra Talhada, and his birth date is subject to conflicting information.
He belonged to a family of reasonable social standing and was literate.
His family lost everything they had in a land dispute with Zé Saturnino.
He joined Sinhô Pereira's band of cangaceiro, in 1921, and, in the following year, he became the band's leader.
His partner was Maria Bonita, who joined the bandit in 1930, and together they had a daughter in 1932.
He died in an ambush in Sergipe in 1938. His head was exposed by several places.
Video lesson about Lampião
Origins of Lampião
Virgulino Ferreira da Silva
was born in Serra Talhada, in the state of Pernambuco, on July 7, 1897, and belonged to a family of farmers who led a hard life, but had some possessions. Known in Brazilian history as Lamp, his birth date is the target of controversy, since his biographies have different dates.O July 7, 1897 is one of the accepted dates because it is the one shown in your recordcivil. However, other biographers consider that the day June 4, 1898 is the most reliable date, as it is in your certificateinbaptism. Regardless, it is known that he was the third child of José Ferreira dos Santos and Marylopes.
We know that Lampião's family had a conditionfinancialreasonable and ensured that he was literate, so the young Virgulino Ferreira learned to read and wrote well. That's because his father owned some land that he bought and inherited, in addition to working as a moron.
Virgulino Ferreira's literacy was a process carried out in just three months, and as early as his adolescence he was already working with his father in the profession of moron. In this work, both led a kind of caravan pulled by donkeys that took goods through the interior of the Northeast.
During this period, Lampião passed through different states in the Northeast region, including: Bahia, Sergipe, alagoas, Pernambuco, Paraíba and Ceará. This work gave him very useful knowledge for his future, as it allowed him to have a network of scattered acquaintances in the Northeast, in addition to knowledge about the paths in the hinterland, the best resting places and where to find Water.
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Tragedy in Lampião's family
From 1915 onwards, the tranquility that Lampião's family lived began to be shaken. That's because José Alves de Barro, known as Joesaturnine, began to rise politically in the region where the Ferreira family lived. José Ferreira, Lampião's father, was Zé Saturnino's neighbor, and soon a dispute for land arose between the two families.
The political relations that Zé Saturnino had also contributed to an action against the Ferreiras. Soon some disagreements began to happen between Zé Saturnino and José Ferreira's children, among whom was Lampião. Zé Saturnino started to use his network of influences to harm the family Fmiss.
The Ferreiras were politically less influential in the region, and Lampião's father had to move to resolve the dispute with Zé Saturnino. The purpose of the dispute was to land concentration in the São Domingos riverside region. The situation got worse for the Ferreiras, who were forced to move at other times.
With each change, the family became even more impoverished. This context led Lampião and some of his brothers to avenge themselves for the family's disgrace. About this, the researcher Guerhansberger Tayllow points out that, as early as 1920, Lampião was acting as a cangaceiro by taking revenge on Zé Saturnino and on everyone who persecuted his family.|1|
The persecution against the Ferreiras resulted in the murder of José Ferreira, on May 18, 1921. At that point, Lampião was already a cangaceiro, and later he joined, as we shall see, an important band in the region.
the bandit
O yoke is understood by historians as a phenomenon of banditry that spread throughout Northeastern Brazil from the 19th century onwards, being very active for most of the first half of the 20th century. The emergence of cangaço is explained by the social, political and economic context of this region.
Barriers of Brazilian society, such as the inequalitySocial, a poverty and the lack of access àJburning and other services provided by the State, were fundamental for the emergence of cangaço. This is because much of the population in the interior of the Northeast lived in poverty and was subject to the interests of the few powerful families that ruled.
These few powerful families used their economic power to gain political power and transformed the politics in a stage of exchange of interests, making the poorest population not have access to any kind of goodness. Disagreements were resolved through weapons, since justice only served the powerful.
From an economic point of view, the situation of the northeastern population was one of poverty and the people's work was intensely exploited. The suffering of families became greater during periods of drought, which hindered their obtaining of livelihoods through agriculture and animal husbandry. This scenario provided for the emergence of banditry, and that was exactly how the bandit was consolidated.
You cangaceiros were groups of bandits that roamed the interior of the Northeast, promoting attacks and looting wherever they went. they moved through the Caatinga and avoided big confrontations. They obtained their weapons through looting against police forces and gathered in small groups. They were seen as heroes by the population and received help from some people known as matchmakers.
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How did Lampião join the bandit?
In 1921, Virgulino Ferreira joined the bunch of Mr. Pereira, one of the most famous cangaceiros in the Northeast. In this band, he prospered as a cangaceiro, becoming the most famous and feared in Brazil. He became known as Lampião because his ability to shoot quickly made him light up the night.
Under the leadership of Sinhô Pereira, Lampião learned a lot. He was taught to survive in the cangaço, to hide his tracks, to avoid open confrontations with the police and how to behave in attacks.in July 1922, Mr. Pereira abandoned the bandit, and Lampião assumed the leadership of the group.
Lampião then began to lead attacks against properties and cities in search of wealth. He looted what he could, ransomed certain items he looted, and often extorted certain locations, demanding a payment so he wouldn't attack them. He also knew how to develop a network of coiteiros that helped him whenever necessary.
Lamp led his band of cangaceiros from 1922 to 1938, promoting numerous attacks during this period. He faced several times the mobile troops, that is, the mobile police forces that acted in the fight against cangaceiros. However, he avoided very open confrontations so as not to have loss of men and wasted ammunition.
During his wanderings, Lampião met Maria Gomes de Oliveira, woman who was part of a family of coiteiros. She became known as MaryBeautiful and she fell in love with Lampião, leaving her husband to stay with the cangaceiro chief. She joined Lampião's gang in 1930, and became the first woman to be part of the bandit.
Until then, women were not part of the cangaço, but, due to Lampião, that changed, and his men generally began to be accompanied by their wives. The arrival of Maria Bonita took place during the decadent phase of the cangaço and contributed to the loosening of security measures for the cangaceiros because the rest periods became longer. Together, Lampião and Maria Bonita had a daughter, in 1932, named ExpediteFerreiraNunes.
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Lampião's death
In July 27, 1938, Lampião and his men settled down to rest in the farmAngicos, located in Poço Redondo, in the state of Sergipe. It so happens that Lampião's position was denounced (to this day it is not known by whom), and the flying troops went to meet his band.
At dawn on July 28, 1938, Lampião's gang went caught by surprise per an attack by the flying troops. Its leader was hit by three shots and died on the spot. His corpse was decapitated and his head was taken to different locations on display of his death. This was because he was one of the most hunted men in the Northeast.
Other theories have emerged explaining his death. Some researchers claim he may have been poisoned the day before the attack, while others point out that he may have fled and hidden for the rest of his life. These hypotheses, however, are not accepted, and it is considered that he was actually murdered in the surprise attack.
Grades
|1| SARMENTO, Grassberger Taillow Augusto. Virgulino mapped: power relations and territorializations of the cangaceiro Lampião (1920-1928). Master's Thesis: UFRN, Natal, 2019.
Image credit
[1] commons
By Daniel Neves Silva
History teacher