Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
A theme common to all regions of the Portuguese seaborne empire was dependency on non-Europeans for the creation, consolidation and survival of empire: for defense, labor, construction of towns and forts, transportation, production of raw materials, sexual gratification and, in the case of the Estado da India (Portuguese forts, towns, cities and factories from the Swahili coast to Japan and Timor), on merchants, brokers and interpreters to provide access to suppliers, distributors, commercial networks, and even vessels and capital. Through conversion, peoples from Japan to Africa and America, contributed to the flock of the church militant and, in some more limited cases, as missionaries, catechists, and secular priests. One exception was Brazil where Amerindians were not admitted into the regular or secular clergy. The one area in which the Portuguese crown was not willing to countenance indigenous participation was appointment to public office, be this in the imperial bureaucracy, or election to city or town councils other than in Cape Verde and São Tomé. In Asia and Angola persons other than of exclusively European parentage on both sides and even New Christians may have served on town councils, and some non-Europeans held clerical positions, but the policy forbidding persons of African descent to hold office in church or state was adhered to in practice. Brazil was unique in at least two regards. First, perhaps in no other European colony was dispossession (from an indigenous perspective) so complete. The Portuguese assumed sovereignty over indigenous peoples and their territories and saw Brazil as a tabula rasa where the Portuguese were free to establish cities, institutions, governance, commercial practices, and to implant their religious beliefs, writing and numeracy systems, values, and mores. Secondly, among European overseas colonies in the early modern period, Brazil was unique in that by the end of the colonial period (1822), a transplanted population of African-born and their American-born descendants comprised a demographic majority which exceeded the indigenous population and persons of European origin or descent.
A preliminary version of this paper was presented to an international colloquium ℌBrazil: Colonization and Slavery” held in Lisbon in November, 1996.
The following archival abbreviations have been used. AMB, Arquivo Municipal, Salvador; APBOR, Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia, Livros de Ordens Régias; APMCMOP, Arquivo Público Mineiro, Registros da Câmara Municipal de Ouro Prâto; APMSG, Arquivo Público Mineiro, Secretaria do Govêrno; SPBM, Biblioteca Municipal, São Paulo.
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11 “inimigos da nação; “símbolos dos desaforos” (APMCMOP vol. 65,fols. 273v–6v); “inimigos internos” was coined by acting governor of Minas Gerais, Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença in a letter to the king, 18 December 1736 (APMSG vol. 44, ff. 129–132v). Cf. Santos Vilhena, Luís dos, Recopilação de notícias soteropolitanas e brasilicas, 2 vols (Salvador: Imprensa Oficial do Estado, 1922), vol. 1. pp. 46,135–6, and 139–40;Google Scholar Conde da Ponte (16 July 1807) in Accioli-Amaral, , Memórias Históricas e Políticas, Vol. 3 (Salvador: Imprensa Oficial do Estado, 1931), pp. 228–30;Google Scholar Carneiro, Maria Tucci, Preconceito Racial: Portugal e Brasil-Colônia, 2nd. ed. (São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1988).Google Scholar
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16 “expecialmente sahindo semelhantes expressoens da boca de homens vis como são todos os q’este prezte anno servem de vereadores. …” He characterized them as “homens de tão baixa esfera como são os prezentes vereadores, q’ por todos os caminhos licitos e illicitos procurarão entrar nestas ocupações…,” Galvêas to King, 9 October 1732 (APMSG, vol. 35, doc. 100).
17 King to Lencastre, 11 February 1700 ( APBOR, vol. 6. doc.29) and King to the count of Sabugosa, 26 June 1720 (APBOR, vol. 62, doc. 36); Provisāo of 15 November 1735 (APMCMOP, vol. 7, fols. 167r–168r). For selection procedures and Regimento of 21 August 1736, see APMCMOP, vol. 32, ff. 24v–25r, 47r-v; Codigo Philippine, 14th ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Typographia do Instituto Philimathico, 1870), Lo. 1, tit. 65, §73, 74. In 1716 inhabitants of Padre Faria parish in Vila Rica were invited to elect two such judges (APMCMOP, vol. 4, ff.2v-3.r); “prejudisial ao bem publico … fossem homes de bom prosedimento e não prejudicassem ao bem comum pudessem servir porque a bondade da Ley não comsiste no asidente mas sim no bom prosedimento…” (APMCMOP, vol. 52, ff. 169r-171v;177v-178r).
18 “tem algũa casta da terra, ainda q’ passa por branco; alto e magro, pinta de branco,” APMSG, vol. 55, ff. 119r–120r, 135v–136r. Cf. Henry Koster’s expression for mulatto officers in white militia troops, magistrates, and as priests: “in practice they are rather reputed white men,” Travels in Brazil, 2 vols. 2nd ed (London: Longman,Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817), vol. 2, pp. 209–210. On “mulatto escape hatch,” see Degler, , Neither Black nor White, pp. 107, 218–19 and 223–45.Google Scholar
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24 APMSG, vol. 20, docs. 52 and 53; “aprendizes e oficios mecánicos, lacayos, mochillas, marinheiros, barqueiros, fragateiros, negros, e outras pessoas de igual ou inferior condição,” APBOR, vol. 50, ff. 28r-34v; APMSG, vol. 50, ff. 73y-74r.
25 Minutes of 1 April 1626 and of 20 September 1628, Documentos históricos do Arquivo Municipal. Atas da Câmara, Vol. 1 (Salvador: Prefeitura do Municipio do Salvador, 1944), pp. 33 and 106.
26 King to António de Albuquerque, 24 July 1711(APMSG, vol. 5, f. 26v). Ordeno, e mando, q’ nenhum mameluco, bastardo, mulato, carijó, ou preto escravos ou forros possão trazer arma algũa de fogo, traçado, ou catana e menos entrar nas villas com elas salvo em compa de seus senhores,” (APMSG, vol. 7 f. 8r; APMSG, vol. 11, ff. 118r-119r, 282v-284r). For a sampling of like orders, see APMSG vol. 7 f. 8r; vol. 11, ff. 118r-119r, 270r-v, 279r-80r, 282v-284r; vol. 27, f. lOr-v; APMCMOP, vol. 54, ff. 147v-148r.
27 APMCMOP vol. 6, f. lOr-v; vol. 52, f. 217r-v; APMSG, vol. 37, ff. 20v-21 v, 45v-46v; vol. 50, ff., 80v-82v.
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