Regiment of the Diretório dos Índios and women’s schools for reading and writing in the colonial period

The colonial education system was configured, first, by a strong influence of the Catholic Church, when school education was presented as a branch of religious service. In a second phase, when the Portuguese State assumed responsibility for public education, with the Pombaline Studies Reform, we witnessed the first efforts to constitute a state education system, with the teaching career institutionalized in the list of civil servants (^{Mendonça & Cardoso, 2007}).

The Pombaline Studies Reform, in its two phases, which began in 1759 and 1772 respectively, brings together a set of actions aimed at organizing the state education system. The main highlights of this reform are attributed to the Alvará Régio de 28 de junho de 1759, and the Lei de 6 de novembro de 1772 (1858). In the first phase of the Reform of Studies, the creation of royal humanities classes (Latin grammar, rhetoric and Greek) and the extinction of the Jesuit schools were contemplated (Alvará de 28 de junho, 1759). In the second phase, the reform of the statutes of the Universidade de Coimbra, the creation of royal reading, writing and calculus courses, in addition to expanding the number of humanities courses (Lei de 6 de novembro de 1772, 1858). It was one of the “first attempts to organize an official elementary education system in Europe, with the exception of Prussia, which had created it many years before”⁷ (Adão, 1987, as cited in ^{Cavalcante, 2008}, p. 223, own translation).

In the pioneer spirit of the Pombaline Studies Reform, there is inequality in the distribution of vacancies and the diffusion of instruction throughout the Portuguese territory, with a greater disadvantage for the colonial part (^{Mendonça & Cardoso, 2007}). Almost all the chairs created in the two phases of the Reformation were concentrated in the European territory, while a small part was destined for America and another tiny part, less than a dozen, distributed to Africa and Asia (Lei de 6 de novembro de 1772, 1858).

In addition to the inequality in the opening of royal classes in relation to different spaces in the territory, there is the maintenance of the culture of exclusion of women from the public education system. A visible demonstration of this reality is in the fact that the royal classes, of reading, writing and humanities, constituted “a state-owned network of minor Studies [which] were only aimed at the education of young men”⁸ (^{Adão, 2014}, p. 58, own translation).

Meanwhile, female education mainly contemplated religious teaching and domestic economy and could be accessed in the family space or inside convents and gatherings. In Portugal, the first Recolhimentos, created in the 15th century, had the function of educating women for marriage, differentiating themselves from convents, which aimed at religious training. In Brazil, most of the penitentiaries emerged between the end of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th, and assumed many functions, which served the interests that went beyond the objective of secular training (^{Algranti, 1993}).

Although the spaces for women’s education at the Court historically did not focus on instruction, the first two public classes were offered on the premises of the convents of the Congregation of the Ursulines of France, for external students, from 1780 onwards. In the two convents the Congregation started to receive girls from the neighborhoods where they were created (^{Adão, 2014}).

Public schools outside the religious space were only created in Portugal in 1790,⁹ by the Resolução Régia de 31 de maio [Royal Resolution of May 31], when the Royal Board granted a favorable opinion to the installation of 18 classes for women in the Court, in the government of D. Maria I (from 1877 to 1792) (^{Adão, 2014}). The fact that there was a queen in charge of the Portuguese kingdom may have influenced the creation of these classes, despite the time gap between their creation, in 1790, and the authorization for their completion, which only occurred in 1815 (Adão, 2014; ^{Cavalcante, 2008}).

Although the classes created by the Pombaline Studies Reform did not intend to include girls, one cannot hastily discard the possibility that public elementary education reached some women in the 18th century, if we consider the colonial space of Portuguese America.

The text of the Regulation published on May 3, 1757, for Grão-Pará and Maranhão, and confirmed by the Alvará de 17 de agosto de 1758 [Charter of August 17, 1758] (Diretório que se deve observar..., 1758), which extended its effects to the entire Brazilian territory indicates the occurrence of public classes of literacy aimed at females in Portuguese America, before their creation in Portugal.

The document in question, entitled Diretório que se deve observar nas povoações dos índios do Pará, e Maranhão: Enquanto Sua Majestade não mandar o contrário [Directory that must be observed in the settlements of the indigenous people of Pará and Maranhão: Whereas Their Majesty does not order otherwise] (1758) consisted of a measure aimed at regulating relations in the settlements of the colony that included several aspects, as pointed out by ^{Santos (2022}, p. 265, own translation):

In its 95 paragraphs, the Diretório addresses, among other matters, the civilization of the indigenous people; the demarcation of borders; the mandatory use of the Portuguese language; the requirement to use names and surnames, with preference for those of Portuguese origin; of settlement; of cultivation and trade; of taxation; of the work relations of the indigenous people; of marriage; the prohibition of nudity; the need to establish housing in separate houses; the fight against alcoholism; and the figure of the “Director”, a substitute of the missionaries.¹⁰

Among the guidelines contained in the text of the Diretório dos Índios, paragraphs 7 and 8 stand out, referring to the public instruction, as follows:

7 . . . there will be in every town two public schools, one for boys, in which they will be taught the Christian Doctrine, as well as to read, write and count in the way that is practiced in all civilized nations, and another for girls, in which, in addition to being instructed in the Christian Doctrine, they will be taught to read, write, sew, yearn, and all other duties proper to that sex.

8 For the subsistence of the aforementioned schools, and of a Master, and a Mistress, who must be people endowed with good morals, prudence and capacity, so that they can carry out the important obligations of their jobs: sufficient wages will be paid by the parents of the same indigenous people. . . . In the event, however, that there is no Person in the villages who can teach girls, they may be instructed up to the age of ten in boys’ schools, where they will learn the Christian Doctrine, to read, write, so that together with the infallible truths of our religion acquire more easily the use of the Portuguese language.¹¹ (Diretório que se deve observar..., 1758, p. 4, own translation emphasis added).

^{Guerra (2016}) demonstrates the role of this legal document as an instrument at the service of the linguistic colonization and Portuguese domination. The civilizing purpose is explicit in the text of the document, when it affirms it as a way of removing “peasant peoples from the barbarities of their ancient customs”¹² (Diretório que se deve observar..., 1758, p. 3, own translation). Therefore, the opening of schools became something indispensable.

The concern with the availability of classes and the interest in replacing religious power with civil power in indigenous populations already indicated the modernizing intent of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo. In this case, public education in the colonial space is placed under the orders of the State, even before the implementation of the Pombaline Studies Reform, which will have its first phase launched a year after the Diretório dos Índios is extended to the entire Brazilian territory. Therefore, it is evident that, although the creation and publication of the Diretório dos Índios took place in the context of the period administered by Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo and was part of the set of reformist measures, it cannot be included in the set of legislations referenced as the Pombaline Reform of Studies. The regiment of the Diretório, although it guided the opening of schools, consisted of a broader measure aimed at incorporating indigenous peoples into colonial society as subjects of the Crown, which goes beyond the teaching axis.

Therefore, the Diretório dos Índios legalizes the female presence in reading, writing and math classes in indigenous villages, which was something dissonant from the current custom in Portugal, where until then women had not been granted the right to public instruction. Another issue raised by the Diretório dos Índios is the definition of a differentiated school knowledge between men and women. Even when the presence of the latter was admitted in schools for the former, it limited them to the study of only a small part of what should be taught to them, with the addition of domestic economy (Diretório que se deve observar..., 1758).

However, even with the orientation to start specific classes for both sexes in towns and villages, the difficulties imposed by the reality of the countryside for women’s access to schools must be observed. Before the 19th century, finding the right profile for female teaching could only occur as an exception, given the limited educational opportunities faced by this gender.

In Maranhão, there are no bibliographic records or the identification of documents that attest the occurrence of public chairs in towns and settlements during the 18th century linked to the effects of the execution of the Diretório dos Índios, considering the lack of studies on this period. Extrapolating the space of Maranhão, in the captaincy of Ceará, three mixed schools managed by men were identified, as described:

In this first phase of public education in the captaincy of Ceará, few schools were created. The first of them was installed on July 9, 1759, in Aldeia-Caucaia, and it was elevated to the status of village in October of the same year, under the name of Vila Nova de Soure. Its registration on the opening date indicated the number of 142 students of both sexes, of which several were married. On the same day, another school was inaugurated in the village of Paiacú, with a total of 54 students, 34 female and 20 male. Yet another was created in the same year in Viçosa.¹³ (Sousa ^{Pinto, 1939}, p. 65, own translation).

The schools identified by Ceará’s historiography were installed days after the first phase of the Pombaline Studies Reform began, in 1759, instituted with the Alvará de 28 de junho. However, one should not link these schools to the first phase of the Portuguese Reform of Studies, given that, at that time, the orders were for the creation of humanities classes (Latin grammar, Greek and rhetoric), and not for reading, writing and tell. These classes were only included in the second phase of the Reform of Studies, which began in 1772, so they were installed in Ceará as a result of the effects of implementing the Diretório dos Índios.

Attention is drawn to the compliance of the content of the Diretório dos Índios, especially with regard to the payment of teachers’ salaries in schools in Ceará. According to Sousa ^{Pinto (1939}, p. 65, own translation, emphasis added): “each teacher received 50 reis per student plus a bushel of cassava flour per year, expenses borne by the students’ parents or guardians”.¹⁴

The Diretório dos Índios was revoked by the Carta Régia de 12 de maio de 1798 [Royal Charter of May 12, 1798], having officially been in force for 40 years (^{Moreira, 2011}).

Although in Maranhão there is still a lack of knowledge about the occurrence of female schools created due to the effectiveness of the Diretório dos Índios, when the focus is on the beginning of the 19th century, the public collection of APEM allows the identification of the first initiatives of female public schooling in the history of the state.

First public classes for girls in Maranhão

In the 19th century, the schooling of women in public schools appeared as a result of the initiative of the Provisional Government Board, when in 1822 it defined, among other measures, the opening of a public tender for the nomination of a teacher of first letters in the capital of Maranhão.

The Provisional Boards of Government were instituted to replace the power previously conferred for the general captains and captaincy governors (^{Camargo, 2013}; ^{Goularte, 2014}). As a rule, captaincies were transformed into provinces, and the administrative power, formerly concentrated in the authority of independent governments, was now carried out by a board of five to seven members chosen, by parish voters, among “known men in the region, who in by virtue of their businesses and authority, established social networks that led them to this new position of power”¹⁵ (Goularte, 2014, p. 189).¹⁶

In Maranhão, the first governing board was elected on February 15, 1822, and was replaced by a second board, elected on August 7, 1823, after Maranhão joined the Independence of Brazil (^{Marques, 1970}).¹⁷ The second Provisional Board, awaiting the nomination of the president of the province who should be nominated by emperor D. Pedro I, underwent an alteration in December 1823. This last configuration of the board remained until April 1824, when it became known that the president of the board had been chosen as the first constitutional president of the province of Maranhão (^{Meireles, 2001}).¹⁸

As a first measure in the field of Public Instruction, the governing board of Maranhão dedicated itself to the reform of Minor Studies, which was carried out through the Portaria de Governo de 8 de julho de 1822 [Government Ordinance of July 8, 1822] (^{Silva Belford et al., 1822}, pp. 1-3) and the Edital de 15 de julho de 1822 [Public Notice of July 15, 1822] (Edital, 1822, p. 3), published in the newspaper O Conciliador do Maranhão, on July 17 of the same year.

In the Ordinance of the governing council of Maranhão, of July 8, 1822, it was authorized to hold a public tender for the provision of teachers of Latinity, Rhetoric and for teachers of First Letters for the capital and two other subjects of first letters (male positions) for the interior, distributed between Jugado do Mearim and Freguesia de Nossa Senhora do Rosário do Itapecuru. Procedures were also established for conducting the public tender, with the location of the exams, content for discussion and indication of the members of the examining boards, who should be all male (^{Silva Belford et al., 1822}, pp. 1-3). There was also a special recommendation for the examination of Female Teachers of First Letters, as follows:

. . . I recommend that the Female Teacher of girls should, in addition to being examined similarly, albeit with less rigor, offer at the time of the exams, certifications from Senhoras distintas desta Cidade Mães de Família, who uniformly attest that the applicant knows how to sew, sew lace, and the more activities proper to their sex.¹⁹ (^{Silva Belford et al., 1822}, p. 1, own translation).

The main focus of the exam for women was not domestic skills, but reading, writing, counting and religious doctrine, “with less rigor” than what was foreseen for men. Although there was no intention to equate the schooling of both sexes, there is a preponderance of knowledge from elementary education over domestic knowledge, even if this relevance seems more a consequence of the male composition of the examining board. If more emphasis were given to domestic skills, it would be essential to put a woman to the examination board, among the men chosen for the examination.

Regarding the first letters classes, two for boys and one for girls in the capital and two other classes for men in the countryside were created through the public notice. For the two classes outside the capital, attention is drawn to the detail that girls could apply for male schools “whom their age allows, and their parents consent, in terms of paragraph 8 of the Regiment of May 3, 1757, confirmed by the Charter of August 17, 1758”²⁰ (^{Silva Belford et al., 1822}, pp. 1-3, own translation).

The detail in question is the confirmation of something that had already been raised by the Diretório dos Índios, which is the institution of mixed classes, with the freedom granted to girls to attend public classes of first letters for boys that were being created in the countryside. This way of remedying the lack of specific schools for women signals a reflection on the origin of mixed classes, as something inaugurated by the context of a lack of women’s schools in rural and interior areas, as was the case in Ceará.

It is observed that the Diretório dos Índios of 1757 was used as legal support by the Administrative Board of the Government of Maranhão in the public notice for the creation of public schools, even after its revocation (1798), demonstrating the longevity of this legal instrument. ^{Moreira (2011}, p. 5, own translation) explains that, due to the absence of another instrument to replace it, it “ended up being officially in force in some provinces”,²¹ until, in 1845, D. Pedro II published new regulations on the subject.

The precarious school reality of Maranhão in the early 1820s cannot be ignored, since that, with few places available, public education was a privilege of few people. In 1821, Maranhão had a capital, São Luís, 12 villages (Alcântara, Caxias, Itapecuru-Mirim, Tutoia, São Bernardo, Paço do Lumiar, Guimarães, Icatu, Pastos Bons, Vinhais, Viana and Monções) and 19 settlements (^{Meireles, 2001}). In 1822, in the whole province there was only one class of first letters, which was located in the capital and was directed by Father Domingos Cadávilla Velloso,²² and had 140 students (^{Marques, 1970}).

The first royal chair of first letters in Maranhão was created by the Carta de Lei de 6 de novembro de 1772. Although its functioning is unknown since the period of its creation, it was inactive for some time in the beginning of the 19th century, which came to be modified by bishop Joaquim de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, who was at the head of the Diocese Maranhense from 1820 to 1824. He made the aforementioned chair work, which was financed in 1821 by governor Bernardo da Silveira Pinto (^{Marques, 1970}).

Bishop Joaquim de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré became the first president of the Maranhão governing board, which was installed before Maranhão joined the Independence of Brazil. Even before assuming the presidency of the board, enjoying the authority of a bishop, he had already put father Domingos Cadávilla Velloso in charge of the school of first letters. In 1822, the anniversary of the chair of first letters in the capital was celebrated, and the ceremony began with the bishop and was supplied with provincial resources, as can be seen in the publication of the newspaper O Conciliador do Maranhão, in March 1822 (^{Conceiro, 1822}).

In 1823, after the efforts of the governing board, the number of male chairs distributed in the province increased to 11, with only one female chair created. The male chairs were located in the following locations: capital, Alcântara, São Bento, Guimarães, Viana, Munim, Itapecuru-Mirim, Rosário, Mearim, Vila do Paço and Vinhaes (^{Marques, 1970}). The only female chair in the capital was occupied by Justiniana Joaquina Amada. With the exception of the male chair in the capital, which had already been provided since governor Bernardo da Silveira Pinto, who preceded the government of the first governing council, all other classes of first letters were provided by the governing board (Marques, 1970).

The classes of first female letters gradually expanded, going from one, which operated in the capital, in 1823, to three, in 1830, with the opening of the public tender for two more chairs, one for the capital and another for Alcântara (Edital, 1830, p. 828); in 1835, the fourth chair was created in Caxias. This number of girls’ schools had only increased since 1837, when the Lei de 15 de outubro de 1837, which determined the opening of elementary schools for both sexes in populated areas, completed ten years of existence. This expansion took place with the creation of six new female classes in the province, in the following locations: Guimarães, Viana, Itapecuru-Mirim, São Bernardo do Brejo, São Bento and Rosário (Carta de lei n. 41..., 1837).

As can be seen, the Reform of Public Instruction envisaged by the governing board of the Maranhão province, regulated by means of the Portaria de Governo de 8 de julho de 1822 [Government Ordinance of July 8, 1822] and by the Edital de 15 de julho de 1822 [Public Notice of July 15, 1822], had as its main practical effect the provision of chairs of first letters and humanities in some localities of the province, and the creation of the first public chair of first letters destined for females, paid for by the state treasury and installed in the capital starting from the year 1823.

Although the public notice that guided the provision of chairs pointed to the holding of a public tender and even defined the examiners by name, the filling of such vacancies seems not to have been carried out through a public tender, possibly due to the great political instability that Maranhão went through in the period between 1822 and 1824. There were three governing boards at the head of the Maranhão administration, between February 1822 and July 1824, and the first president of the province, after Maranhão’s accession to the Independence of Brazil, only remained in office from July to December 1824 (^{Marques, 1970}).

In 1830, we find the first records of exams for teachers of first letters, in accordance with article 7 of the Lei Geral de Instrução Pública de 1827, which determined public exams by presidents, in the Provincial Council. By means of the Edital de 10 de maio de 1830 [Notice of May 10, 1830], published in O Farol Maranhense on the 21st of the same month, the opening of public tenders for the provision of first letters and humanities chairs is declared, with the following content:

1° The public tender for filling the vacant chairs of Latin Grammar in the Villas de Guima- rães, Vianna and Itapecuru-Mirim is open; and those of First Letters of Santo Antônio e Almas, São João de Cortes, and São Vicente Ferrer do Termo de Alcântara; the villas of Vinhais, Icatu and Tutóya; of the places São José da Lapa and Pias, and of the School for Girls of Villa de Alcântara, and of the parish of Sé, in this city. . . . 5° The current Teachers of First Letters who are occupying the respective Chairs without the examinations required by the law of October 15, 1827, must also compete to enjoy the benefit of it in the increase of new salaries.²³ (Edital, 1830, p. 828, own translation).

The text of the public notice indicates the intention to expand the number of schools in the province, with greater benefits for men. As for women, a slight advance can be seen, with the opening of two chairs, one new for the parish of Nossa Senhora da Victória, in the capital, which was provided by Henriqueta Cândida Ferreira in 1830, and another, outside the capital, in Alcântara, which Anna Joaquina de Seixas Corrêa requested to occupy, in 1833 (Sessão, 1833a, p. 680).

In addition to the requirement that new teachers should pass exams to occupy the new chairs, the announcement of May 10 highlights the determination that former teachers who already taught in schools could be submitted to examinations. This is how the three public teachers of the first letters of the capital requested to be examined in the contents established by the law of October 15.

João Francisco da Cruz,²⁴ teacher at the Escola de Primeiras Letras in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Victória, was the first to do the exams, on June 11, 1830 (Artigos D’ Ofícios, 1830). Later, Alexandre José Rodrigues and Justiniana Joaquina Amada, both from the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, did the same.

Teachers of first letters for females in Maranhão: Teaching of public classes

It was the act of opening the school established by the governing board, in 1822, which guaranteed the first known designation of a teacher to the public chair of Primeiras Letras in Maranhão, which only occurred in the following year. Justiniana Joaquina Amada was exclusively in the female public education in the capital until 1830, when a second teacher, Henriqueta Cândida Ferreira, was appointed for another public chair in the capital.

The first public female teacher in Maranhão in the 19th century was the daughter of Joaquim Gomes, born in 1803 (FamilySearch, 2020), and she started teaching at the age of 20 years old. This was something that contrasted with the guidelines established in Portugal, from 1822, which stated that mature women should be hired, avoiding those under 40, to guarantee a good moral formation of the students (^{Adão, 2014}).

D. Justiniana was appointed at the end of 1823, when Maranhão had already recognized the imperial authority of D. Pedro I and was officially disassociated from Portugal. It can be assumed that, in this initial period of national independence, public classes for women appeared as an exception, as it was still not possible to define parameters on the issue. It was with the Imperial Constitution of 1824 that the age of 25 appeared as a condition for the usufruct of political and civil rights, such as holding public office (Constituição Política do Império do Brasil, 1824).

In 1830, Justiniana had the following note published in the newspaper O Farol Maranhense, in which she mentions her exam to fill the same chair in which she exercised the first letters:

D. Justiniana Joaquina Amada, teacher of First Languages in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in this city, announces that she has moved to house No. 80 on Rua do Sol, which used to belong to the deceased Cardoso, teaching in the form of Law of October 15, 1827, for having been appointed to this same chair, which he already held, in view of the examination he publicly took before the Provincial Council, therefore notify parents who intend to educate their daughters in the first letters, Grammar of National Language, the four main species of Arithmetic and Home Economics, should address the same house.²⁵ (Avisos, 1830, p. 4, own translation).

In another document written by her, she refers to the beginning of her teaching activities in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição and records the number of students who attended her classes (^{Amada, 1833}, own translation):

I acknowledge having received the official letter that Your Excellency dated the 8th of the current year, which was addressed to me, I have the honor to comply with it. Thirty-four students attend my class currently and since 1823, when I have served this job until the present date, I will not give a certain number of those that have left ready due to lack of an exact memory, but I think there are two hundred, a little less.²⁶

By 1833, Justiniana had taught for ten years and is believed to have instructed about 200 girls, although none of them were publicly examined and thus declared graduated in elementary school subjects. This fact is justified by the teacher, in another letter, in which she records the difficulty that prevented her students from completing the subject of first letters (^{Amada, 1835a}, own translation):

In compliance with the document dated from January 31st, under n° 32, I have the honor to present to Your Excellency the included list of the students who currently attend my class with the statements presented in the same letter from Your Excellency, not being able to indicate the times of their exams because this was not practiced due to the lack of constancy of most of the girls’ parents, who, satisfied only with the four arithmetic operations, and some domestic tasks, took their daughters out of class without any further satisfaction, being able to assure, Your Excellency, that within three years of this part will have been ready to the satisfaction of their parents for more than fifty girls²⁷.

Justiniana Joaquina Amada is the name with which the teacher corresponded with the government, although in this document she used the surname “Gomes”, attributed to her father. The difficulty pointed out by Justiniana in the document of February 3 (Amada, 1835a) was not experienced only by her, as a teacher of girls, but something also experienced by her colleague who taught in the same parish. According to Alexandre José Rodrigues, since he started his classes in January 1829, for which he had been appointed since November 1828, he had only exempted two of his students for the exam at the end of elementary school. The reasons alleged by him ranged from difficulties related to the precariousness of the building where she taught her classes, to the lack of utensils and the parents’ lack of interest in their children staying for an extended period of schooling, as stated below:

. . . an old habit that still worries some parents, who limit the teaching of their children only to knowing how to read, write, and the four main types of arithmetic. . . . and that the will of parents is free; I wish it wasn’t: as soon as the children can read, and barely sign their names, they assign them a job through which they can later acquire means of subsistence, as they express themselves, for not having to leave them, that is, in need of wealth, such children, in great numbers, attend my class.²⁸ (^{Rodrigues, 1830}, p. 4, own translation).

In the two transcribed documents, the teachers reveal the unwillingness of less wealthy families to leave their children involved in schooling obligations for a long time.

The last document produced by Justiniana dates from February 25, 1835, and it is a declaration of the impossibility to exercise the teaching function, due to being ill. The document is accompanied by a certificate from the anatomical surgeon Manoel Rodrigues da Silva Sarmento, in which he declares that the patient has repeatedly suffered from intestinal problems, with blood loss and that, therefore, she would be forever prevented from continuing with her tasks, both domestic and educational (^{Amada, 1835b}). The surgeon’s assertion that the teacher could never perform her duties again was confirmed by her death on May 27, 1835, aged 32 (FamilySearch, 2020).

The second public female teacher of girls in Maranhão was Henriqueta Cândida Ferreira, daughter of the couple Miguel Inácio Ferreira and Catarina Mendonça, born in 1796. She married Antônio José Guilhon, captain-major, who was a justice of the peace in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Victoria, at Sé, on September 18, 1819 (FamilySearch, 2022).

Although we do not know Justiniana Joaquina’s marital status and whether she was a mother,²⁹ as for Henriqueta, it appears that she had children - at least four have been identified. Two were men, José Antônio Guilhon and Henrique Guilhon, and two girls, Maria Rita Guilhon and Rosa Carolina Guilhon, registered on the elementary school where she taught.

Henriqueta began her duties as a teacher of first letters in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Victória on September 4, 1830, and retired in 1856 (Governo da província, 1856, p. 1), although she remained in private teaching until 1876, when there is the last reference to it in newspapers and almanacs in Maranhão. Throughout her career, Henriqueta was part of examination boards for students who were completing their primary education, as well as examination boards for other teachers.

The second teacher in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição was Ester Leopoldina Pinheiro, Justiniana’s substitute. She requested the government to do the exams publicly, which was granted with the appointment for October 7, 1833. The examiners were “Alexandre José Rodrigues, 2nd Lieutenant Engineer José Joaquim Rodrigues Lopes and the two public teachers of this city [Justiniana and Henriqueta]” (Sessão, 1833c, p. 836, own translation). It is possible that Ester underwent an examination aiming at a vacancy not yet created, remaining as surplus. It was common for teachers to request the exam even before there was a vacancy. They were, therefore, waiting that as soon as there was an opening or vacancy of some school they could be employed.

Ester Leopoldina Pinheiro was called to replace Justiniana, entering the public service approximately two months after the death of the previous one. Classes began on July 29, 1835, as can be seen from the map with the list of students, sent to the government on November 18, 1836. It contains a total of 32 girls, with entry registration, of the two oldest ones, on July 29, 1835. Among the students, one was Claudina Maria Pinheiro, ten years old, who can be assumed as Ester’s daughter (Pinheiro, 1836a).

The first female public school teacher outside the capital was Anna Joaquina de Seixas Corrêa, appointed to the city of Alcântara. This chair was created in 1829 and put out to public tender in 1830; but its competition was only scheduled for June 12, 1833, after the Provincial Council responded to the request of Anna Joaquina, who was interested in occupying it. Its examiners were Francisco Sotero dos Reis, lecturer at the Liceu Maranhense, Alexandre José Rodrigues, professor of first letters in the capital, Justiniana Joaquina Amada and Henriqueta Cândida Ferreira, whose names were once again omitted in the publication of the government file, being referred to as “the two teachers” (Sessão, 1833b, p. 714).

Regarding the aspect of teacher training through the Lancaster method, in Brazil we had the Escola Normal da Corte and its counterparts in the provinces, created between the 1830s and 1840s, intended only for a male audience. However, this does not mean that only male professors from the period after the Lei de 15 de outubro de 1827, were obliged to teach their classes using the aforementioned method.

^{Schwartz and Ferreira (2014}), despite analyzing the conception of female education embedded in the Lancaster method, demonstrate that in the context of England in which such a form of teaching was structured, there was a female demand for the performance of textile industrial activities, with the need to develop “manual skills, reading and writing” (p. 59, own translation). This context influenced some parity in the elementary education between the two genres, at least with regard to reading, writing and counting. However, for women, the knowledge peculiar to the demands imposed on them by the manufacturing market should be added. Despite the parity nature of elementary knowledge (reading, writing and counting) proposed for men and women in England, Schwartz and Ferreira (2014) demonstrate how in Brazil a differentiation in teaching content was exacerbated, especially when a smaller portion of knowledge is defined in the elementary school for girls and the industrial training is replaced by domestic skills.

Although with differences between the teaching of women and men in relation to the elementary content, when the Lancaster method was made official and the opening of women’s schools in populous places was franchised, this method became common in both male and female classes. In the case of Maranhão, the first public teachers of first letters (Justiniana, Henriqueta and Ester) demonstrate, in their communications with the government, that the requirement to use the Lancaster method was equally established for teachers, as can be seen from the reading from teachers’ jobs to the government, highlighting the organization of teaching compatible with the Lancaster method.

The female school conducted by Henriqueta, in 1833, was divided into five classes, with the respective number of students for each: 16, 17, 5, 16 and 12 (^{Ferreira, 1833}). At another time, she declared that two of her students had passed the exam “in the subjects recommended in the law that created the First Language classes, using the Lancaster Method”³⁰ (Ferreira, 1835, own translation).

The school run by Justiniana Joaquina, in 1835, shortly before her resignation from teaching duties, was organized into three classes, as they were called: reading classes, arithmetic classes and grammar classes. The female students were divided into eight other classes, included in the three described (^{Amada, 1835a}).

The classes conducted by the female and male teachers did not show a pattern in relation to the amount of time spent. Ester Leopoldina, for example, declared that:

. . . I teach 2 times a day, 3 and 5 hours each time, starting in the morning at 7 o’clock and ending at 10 o’clock for those who only learn to read, and at 12 for those who learn to read and home economics, and late at 2, and ending at 5, and at 6, for the same reason.³¹ (^{Pinheiro, 1836b}, own translation).

Henriqueta worked for less time: “I teach twice a day for four hours the first and three hours the second, starting in the morning at 8 and in the afternoon at 3, namely: this last lesson is sewing”³² (^{Ferreira, 1836}, own translation).

The daily class time was different among the teachers: while Ester worked for up to nine hours, Henriqueta worked for seven. The same lack of standardization can be detected in João Francisco da Cruz’s class, when he declared that his students studied for 6 hours: “I teach twice, 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, starting in the morning at 7 am and ending at 10, starting in the afternoon at 2, and ending at 5”³³ (Cruz, 1836, own translation).

Spending more time teaching girls seemed to be in agreement with what was established by Lancaster. For him, the female classes, since they focus on technical training, should be divided into two parts, with “half of the day . . . entirely devoted to [manual] work, and the other half to learning [reading, writing, geometry]”³⁴ (Lancaster, 1807, as cited in ^{Schwartz & Ferreira, 2014}, p. 59, own translation).

Final remarks

The results of this study indicate the need for greater attention to the documentation of the colonial period, especially in relation to the effects of the publication of the regimento dos Diretórios dos Índios of 1757, which provided guidance on the civil administration of indigenous settlements and instituted guidelines for colonization, with emphasis on the role of public schooling, for boys and girls.

The promotion of studies on this historical period, in the various Brazilian states, may contribute to the expansion of knowledge about Brazilian female public education. Despite the little knowledge on the issue, attention should be paid to the great importance of this legislative device that established the creation of a public class to learn how to read and write for women in Brazil, prior to the Pombaline Studies Reform, when not even for the female Court education was a priority.

On the other hand, it can be observed that the first public teacher in Maranhão hired with public resources was appointed in 1823, shortly after Maranhão joined the Independence of Brazil, therefore, before the Lei de 15 de outubro de 1827. Then, three others female teachers were selected and took over the service of female education in the early years of the 1830s, thus composing the cadre of the precursors of the female public teaching service in Maranhão.

Such data draw attention to the need to relativize the current statement in historiography that attributes to the Decreto das Escolas de Primeiras Letras, of 1827, the initial demarcation of female public schooling in Brazil.