Trajetória negra no Amazonas: a carreira do capitão Eduardo Gonçalves Ribeiro (1862-1900)

When Marshal Floriano Peixoto assumed the presidency of Brazil in 1891, he appointed nine military officers to implement his reformist agenda and govern states, all but one in the North and Northeast of Brazil. The governor of Amazonas, Captain Eduardo Gonçalves Ribeiro left an enormous legacy that included the opera house of Manaus, built over a decade before the one in Rio de Janeiro. He drained the swamps and left Manaus a planned city while eradicating yellow fever, again a decade earlier than the national capital. In his four years, he greatly expanded the primary school network in his state while taking measures to encourage industry and immigration. Favored by the rubber boom and the export tax on this product, Ribeiro realized all these programs while balancing the state budget. Although still poorly known, Ribeiro must number among the most prolific state administrators of his time. Ribeiro was black. Our objective in preparing this article is to demonstrate how high a black could rise in nineteenth century Brazil and to demonstrate how much a motivated follower of President Floriano Peixoto could achieve as the governor of a state.