Hand tools characteristics in slave labour

Introduction: The Brazilian economy was based on slave labour, particularly in rural areas, until the end of the nineteenth century. Traditionally, the developed studies regarding this period present a historical or sociological perspective on this subject. OBJECTIVE: Based on analyses of historical descriptive studies, this work aimed to make an objective investigation of the slaves’ safety conditions, concerning the use of equipment and tools, and accidents with an injury resulting from such use. Methodology: The selected databases to conduct the research were: Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, Criminal Justice, EBSCO, Business Source Complete, as well as original historical documents. Regarding the selection process, descriptive studies involving the rural work of the slaves in colonial and imperial Brazil were considered without language restrictions. The tools’ safety conditions, as well as the work performed by them, were evaluated. Results: The searches in the six databases provided, initially, 36,355 references. After applying the exclusion criteria, 9 were selected to full-text reading. By applying the snowballing technique, 19 more papers were added, resulting in a total of 28 works. Once applied the eligibility criteria, 20 papers were included in the systematic review: 8 papers, 3 books, and 9 rare books. The tools used by the slaves ranged from simple wooden rods to cutting hand tools such as hoes, axes, and scythes, made of metal alloys. All of them had great relevance, and their use was widespread in rural properties. Compared with the hand tools used in the twenty-first century, those considered ideal in the nineteenth century tended to have greater mass and larger wooden cables. The shapes and dimensions of the metal tools did not change significantly in this period. Conclusions: The assessed studies indicated the existence of similar tools in all Brazilian regions, which suggest that accidents with injuries occurred similarly among slaves. Regarding energy expenditure, these values are smaller with the tools of the XXI Century, due to the decrease of the mass and the length of the cable (smaller momentum values - Nm).