Modernity as a Conservative Project: the performance of the City Council of Juiz de Fora. 1850-1888

Resumen

This article analyzes the policies of a county government as described by the minutes of the meetings of Juiz de Fora's county council between 1866 and 1872 and published in O Pharol from 1876 to 1888. It focuses on the county govemment's priorities which, the minutes suggest, involved modernization projects; Juiz de Fora, the author suggests, was a vital society based on the exploitation of slave labor.