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Labor in Amazonia in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Sue A. Gross
Sue A. Gross*
Affiliation:
Cortland, Illinois
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Extract

Labor questions put their indelible stamp on colonial life, whether in Brazil, Spanish America, or the North American colonies. Methods of labor recruitment varied among these regions, however, as did the social consequences of enslavement, race mixture, and destruction or modification of native cultures.

The poverty of the Amazon region, the old state of Maranhão e Grão Pará, prevented a system of black slavery such as characterized the Brazilian Northeast. Indians, whether slave, or held as free men in mission villages, dominated the labor market. The perennial lay-ecclesiastical fight for jurisdiction over the Indian has been vividly documented by historians such as Boxer, Kiemen, and Leite. This ground need not be retraced. What may be of interest is to examine the variety of sources from which labor was supplied to the plantations, cities, and fortresses of Maranhão e Grão Pará during the first half of the eighteenth century, just before the disruptions brought by Pombal's reforms.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , October 1975 , pp. 211 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1975

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References

1 Boxer, C. R., The Golden Age of Brazil, 1695–1750, Growing Pains of a Colonial Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964)Google Scholar, Kiemen, Mathias O. F. M., The Indian Policy of Portugal in the Amazon Region, 1614–1693 (Washington, D. C: The Catholic University of America Press, 1954)Google Scholar, Leite, Serafim S. J., História da Companhia de Jesus no Brasil (10 vols., Lisbon: Livraria Portugalia and Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, 1938 1950).Google Scholar

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3 Calmon, Pedro, História do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Jose Olympio, 1959), III, 850 Google Scholar; Boxer, 280–281.

4 Kiemen, p. 182.

5 Portugal, Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino [hereinafter referred to as AHU], “Registro de cartas régias, avisos e oficios para Maranhão e Grão Pará (1673-1796), Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, January 23,1712, Códice 268, fol. 279.

6 Ibid., October 10,1718, Códice 269, fol. 99.

7 Leite, III, 291.

8 Ibid.

9 Biblioteca Nacional de Rio de Janeiro, “Livro Grosso do Maranhão, 1674-1745,” ed. by Josué Montello, Anais da Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro [hereinafter referred to as ABNRJ], Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, March 6, 1682, LXVI, 62–63.

10 Ibid., Letter to the provedor da fazenda of Pará, December 10,1687, LXVI, 80.

11 Ibid., Alvará em forma de lei, March 22,1688, LXVI, 85–86.

12 AHU, “Registro de cartas…” Letter to the provedor da fazenda of Pará, May 4, 1730, Códice 270, fols. 101–102.

13 Ibid., Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, July 19, 1719, Códice 269, fol. 112.

14 Leite, III, 188 189.

15 Ibid., 190.

16 ABNRJ, “Livro Grosso …,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, February 10,1699, LXVI, 186–187.

17 AHU, “Registro de cartas…” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, October 25, 1707, Códice 268, fol. 260.

18 ABNRJ, “Livro Grosso…,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, November 20,1699, LXVI, 192.

19 Ibid., October 30,1702, LXVI, 223.

20 Ibid., May 6,1703, LXVI, 250–251.

21 AHU, “Registro de cartas …,” Letter to the ouvidor geral of Pará, June 14, 1710, Códice 268, fol. 261.

22 Ibid., Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, January 11, 1721, Códice 268, fol. 143.

23 Ibid., Letters to the provedores da fazenda of Maranhão e Grão Pará, May 13, 1721, Códice 269, fol. 156.

24 Ibid., Letter to the ouvidor geral of Maranhão, March 10, 1725, Códice 269, fol. 305.

25 Leite, IV, 377–380.

26 ABNRJ, “Livro Grosso… ,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, March 27, 1702, LXVI, 214.

27 Kiemen, Mathias C. O. F. M., “The Indian Policy of Portugal in America with Special Reference to the Old State of Maranhão, 1500–1755,” The Americas, 5(April, 1949), 443–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Ibid.

29 AHU, “Registro de cartas …,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, April 13, 1728, Códice 270, fols. 55–56.

30 Ibid., April 9,1728, Códice 270, fols. 53-54; April 13, 1728, Códice 270, fol. 55.

31 Ibid., April 17,1731, Códice 270, fol. 121.

32 ABNRJ, “Livro Grosso …,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, February 16, 1703, LXVI, 242–243.

33 AHU, “Registro de Cartas …,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, February 22, 1720, Códice 269, fol. 129.

34 Ibid., October 25,1718, Códice 269, fol. 102.

35 Ibid., December 23,1718, Códice 269, fol. 107.

36 Ibid., January 23, 1722, Códice 269, fol. 205.

37 Ibid., September 24, 1705, Códice 268, fol. 203.

The text of the grant of privileges is found in de Sousa Ferreira, João, “Noticiario Maranhense,” Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, 81 (3rd trimester, 1918), 309–310.Google Scholar

38 AHU, “Registro de cartas …,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, September 27,1707, Códice 268, fol. 223.

39 Ibid., August 22,1716, Códice 269, fols. 62 63.

40 Ibid., March 31,1709, Códice 268, fol. 250.

41 Ibid., May 22, 1737, Codice 270, fol. 264.

42 Ibid., May 27, 1732, Códice 270, fol. 167.

43 Francisco Lisboa, João, Jornal de Timón: apontamentos, noticias e observações para sirvirem á histórta do Maranhão (São Luís, Brazil: 1865), III, 546–550.Google Scholar

44 AHU, “Registro de cartas …,” Letter to the ouvidor geral of Pará, February 16, 1730, Códice 270, fol. 86.

45 Ibid., February 22, 1724, Códice 269, fol. 265.

46 Ibid., Letter to the provedor da fazenda of Maranhão, November 13, 1702, Códice 268, fol. 169.

47 ABNRJ, “Livro Grosso …,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, November 20, 1702, LXVI, 225-226; Letter to the provedor da fazenda of Maranhão, November 20,1702, LXVI, 226–227.

48 Ibid., Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, March 4, 1706, LXVI, 227.

49 Ibid., Letter to the provedor da fazenda of Maranhão, March 5,1709, LXVII, 35.

50 AHU, “Registro de cartas…” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, June 13,1709, Códice 268, fol. 251.

51 Ibid., February 24,1718, Códice 269, fol. 90.

52 Ibid., May 5,1741, Códice 270, fols. 348–349.

53 Ibid., March 2, 1722, Códice 269, fol. 202.

54 Boxer, 23, 177–178.

55 de Souza Gayozo, Raymundo Jozé, Compéndio histórie o-polític o dos principios da lavoura do Maranhão, suas produeçoens e progresses, que tem tido até ao prezente, entraves que vão deteriorando; e meios que tem lembrado para desvanece-los, em augmento da mesma lavoura, e sem prejuizo do real patrimonio (Paris: Officina de P.-N. Rougeron, 1818), p. 144.Google Scholar

56 AHU, “Registro de cartas…,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, February 6,1734, Códice 270, fol. 195.

57 Ibid., December 20,1698, Códice 268, fol. 139.

58 Ibid., November 3, 1705, Códice 268, fol. 207.

59 AHU, “Registro de consultas do Maranhão (1673 1722), Report dated November 7,1707, Códice 274, fols. 190–191.

60 Ibid., Report dated October 10,1718, Códice 274, fol. 264.

61 AHU, “Registro de cartas…,” Letter to the governor of Maranhão e Grão Pará, April 1, 1728, Códice 270, fol. 51.

62 Ibid., July 4,1713, Códice 269, fol. 40.

63 Ibid., April 1, 1728, Códice 270, fols. 46–47.

64 Ibid., March 14,1706, Códice 268, fol. 211.