On the night of June 24, 1874, the illiterate farmer Francisco Angelino de Souza attended a St. John's party in the house of João Pereira, located in the estate Barra do Felipe in the largely rural municipality of Jucás, province (now state) of Ceará in Northeast Brazil. The celebrations unfolded uneventfully, with the guests singing to the rhythms of a viola (small guitar, typical of the Northeastern backlands) and drinking the sugarcane brandy called cachaça until late in the night. However, unexpectedly, a fight erupted between Francisco Angelino and António Rodrigues de Souza. According to eyewitnesses, Francisco Angelino stabbed António's leg with his knife after he had “offended” Francisco Angelino's reputation. In the midst of this commotion, one of the party guests performed an in flagrante arrest, taking an indignant Francisco Angelino to jail, while he clamored at the top of his lungs that he “was not afraid of any man, or even of being jailed, because he had a bull, a horse, lands and money” to defend himself.