Teodoro Fernandes Sampaio

Teodoro Fernandes Sampaio (7 January 1855 - 11 October 1937) was an Afro-Brazilian polymath and public intellectual who worked as an engineer, geographer, politician, and historian.

Sampaio was born on the Engenho Canabrava, property of the Visconde de Aramaré in Santo Amaro, Bahia. His father was Manuel Fernandes Sampaio, a white priest, and his mother, Domingas da Paixão do Carmo, was enslaved.

In 1864 his father took young Sampaio to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where he studied engineering at the Colégio Central.

During his studies in Rio de Janeiro, Sampaio worked as a drafter and taught mathematics in the Museu Nacional.

Sampaio graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1877 and returned to Santo Amaro. Reunited with mother, Sampaio managed to purchase the manumission of his three brothers Martinho, Ezequiel, e Matias.

In 1879, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil named Sampaio to the national "Comissão Hidráulica" (Hydraulic Commission). He was the only Brazilian serving on a team of U.S. engineers working to enlarge the port of Santos.

Sampaio was one of the founders of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico de São Paulo (Historical and Geographical Institute of São Paulo) in 1894; a member of the Instituto Geográfico e Histórico da Bahia, serving as president in 1922, and a member of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (1902).

Sampaio was the first person with an enslaved mother to become a federal deputy in Brazil's history.

His most important books were:

Books about him:

...
Wikipedia