Apedidos and Public Discourse in the Brazilian Empire: The Paid Letters of the Jornal do Commercio

This paper examines the evolution of the understudied apedidos section (paid letters and articles) of the Rio-based Jornal do Commercio from the 1850s through the 1870s.  Covering a diverse range of topics (including amateur poetry, public announcements of gratitude for good service on ship voyages and successful medical treatments, as well as on-going and often vitriolic political debates) the paid letters of the Jornal do Commercio offer a unique view into public life in nineteenth-century Brazil.  This essay focuses on two lines of analysis: what topics were the most prominent for these decades and how did this reflect changing political and material realities in Brazil? Second, what were the defining contours (in terms of style and tone) of the apedidos across time?  Finally, this paper seeks to contextualize this uniquely Brazilian genre and discuss the ways in apedidos are useful for understanding public discourse in the Brazilian Empire.