Abstract:
The changes occurred with the advent of the Industrial Revolution during mid-19th and early
20th centuries were marked by a great italian immigration to the American Continents. The
beginning of de Industrial Revolution in the countryside caused millions of peasants to
become miserable. In this context, as the American Continent was going through the process
of independence of the colonies, abolition of slavery and the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution, its major concern was to replace the slave labor by white and european labor.
Therefore the countries would be recolonized. For the italians, the only way to survive was to
cross the Atlantic Ocean and try their luck in the Americas, in countries like the United States,
Argentina and Brazil. The arrival of the italians to Brasil generated a documentation of
extreme relevance to history and archival science. This research analyzes the immigration to
the State of Rio de Janeiro through the documents created from the records of those
immigrants: the passenger list of Rio de Janeiro's Port and the books of immigrant records
from the Inn on the Island of Flowers. Thus, this research has as main objective to understand
the immigration of italian families to Rio de Janeiro during the years of 1888 – 1889, and
as specific objectives: pointing out the interests and assistance given by theBrazilian
Empire to promote the arrival of the “ideal immigrant”; reviewing the categories of
information “name” and “age” contained in the passenger lists coming from Genoa, to
observe the immigration of italian families to Rio de Janeiro's Port in 1888 – 1889;
identifying the destinations of the families that left Genoa's Port and arrived in Rio de
Janeiro, making considerations aboutto which Brazilian states these italians migrated after
leaving Flores Island; identifying the species and the documentary type in the
passenger lists and in the record books; and recognizing,according to statistics, the increase of
italian immigration during the years 1885-1889.
