The "black corisco": Cangaço, race and banditry in the Brazilian northeastern region

Abstract

The aim of this article is to list the factors that took Manoel Luiz de Jesus to prison in 1931, in the backwoods of the Northeast region of Brazil. He was a black criminal, identified as Black Corisco, from Lampião's gang. The article also discusses the reports and opinions written about him by professionals of the prison system in Sergipe, mainly from those in the Criminal Biology Bureau, which was responsible for examining the criminal's degree of degeneracy. Despite revealing the aspects of Manoel Luiz's trajectory, this article also aims at surprising because of his character and of the sinuous connections among cangaço, race and banditry in light of forensic medicine.