Project Principals

Alexandre Pelegrino, University of Toronto

Background

This project covers all baptismal records for enslaved and freed people from one parish in Maranhão (Brazil) between the 1730s and the 1770s. In this period, Maranhão transitioned from an Indigenous majority in the enslaved workforce to an overwhelming African majority, particularly after the abolition of Indigenous enslavement in 1755, and the creation of a trading company responsible for transporting enslaved Africans to the region. Between the 1740s and the 1770s was precisely when Maranhão transitioned from a frontier economy to a plantation system. Until the 1760s, cattle ranches and manioc production labored by an Indigenous workforce defined Maranhão’s economy. Portuguese settlers exploited Indigenous labor under different circumstances, from domestic services to urban activities including carpenters, masons, and blacksmiths. After the 1770s, cotton and rice farms worked primarily by enslaved Africans started to dominate Maranhão’s landscape.