Assistência às expostas e mulheres desvalidas: uma ação de caridade da Santa Casa de Misericórdia do Maranhão (1850 - 1880)

Abstract

Santa Casa de Misericórdia was a charity instituition that aimed to assist the helpless ones, the poor ones, the sick ones, the prisoners ones, abandoned children and women. In this work, a research was made on the assistance provided to the helpless young people from the “Casa dos Expostos”, a charity instituition where helpless children were abandoned due the moral, social and economic problems that their mothers faced. In adittion to the assistance with the raising and education of the miserable children, the “Misericórdias” helped them in so many ways either sending them to families where they could learn a trade, or sending them to military instituitions, in the case of the boys. The girls, on the other hand, had the possibility of marriage, domestic service, employment in public schools as schoolteachers, or they were sent to shelters. The assistance provided to the helpless women, aimed to set them free from poverty and prostituition, and throughout the 19th Century, “Santa Casa de Misericórdia do Maranhão” had this assistence function, by helping the helpless womem. This work seeks to comprehend how “Santa Casa de Misericórdia do Maranhão” acted during the period between 1850 and 1880, therefore, it has used press sources, which will help us to understand how this charity instituition worked by assisting the society in Maranhão, how it was organized and how it went throught a financial and adminisrative crisis. Furthermore, it is used article published in the 19th century newspaper regardind to the condition of the women, which express 19th century society’s opinios about women customs, values and rules.