The limits of healthcare assistance in the nineteenth century: the urban case of Juiz de Fora (Minas Gerais state)

Abstract The objective of this article is to discuss the mechanisms of healthcare organization in the city of Juiz de Fora (Minas Gerais state), in the second half of the nineteenth century. We investigated the arrangements organized to provide care for the sick and how this structure adapted to the demands of the socio-political and economic scenario. It is noticeable that, while the slave system lasted, the Charity Hospital in Juiz de Fora was irrelevant, since the coffee plantations had facilities capable of caring for the sick. The founding of the healthcare facility fulfilled the function of catapulting the plantation owner José Antonio da Silva Pinto into the Brazilian nobility, becoming the baron de Bertioga, and of accommodating the requirements of imperial legislation through personalist arrangements.