Between 1850 and 1890, control of Rio de Janeiro’s streets was divided between two capoeira groups, or “maltas,” who shared dominion over the urban and rural zones of the city to provide private and political services. One of the groups was the Nagóa malta, which initially consisted of Africans and Baianos, and the other, Guaiamum, was formed by native “crioulos,” slaves born in Brazil.
The Guaiamum were concentrated in the residential areas and in the center of the Imperial Court, providing services for businesses and in the homes of the urban elite. The maltas from the Nagóa group lived in the large farm and ranch areas which occupied the rural part of the city and the Port region, providing services such as “negros for rent” in the center. Their dominion extended from the Gloria region, along with the group “Flor da Gente,” until the end of Campo do Santana, with the “Cadeira da Senhora” group, led by Manoel Preto. According to historian Carlos Eugênio Líbano Soares, in 1888, members of the Cadeira da Senhora group, which at the time cosnisted mostly blacks between 15 and 20 years old, were imprisoned. Of the 33 imprisoned members, 23 were “black,” six were “mixed-race” and four were “white.”
Campo do Santana was an important point of reference for the black inhabitants of the Port region. At the time, the Sant’Ana chapel, constructed in 1735 to house “crioulos” and soldiers from the mixed-race regiment, lent its name to the entire region. At the beginning of the 19th century, with the land reclamation, the Campo became a key area for the free and enslaved transport, cargo, and laundry workers’ movement, at the “laundry fountain.”