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Technology and Society: The Impact of Gold Mining on the Institution of Slavery in
Portuguese America
Author(s): A. J. R. Russell-Wood
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 37, No. 1, The Tasks of Economic History
(Mar., 1977), pp. 59-83
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Economic History Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2119446 .
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Simonsen, Hist6ria econ6mica do Brasil, 1500-1820, 4th ed. (Sao Paulo, 1962), pp. 283-84;
Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho, "Le Portugal, les flottes du sucre et les flottes de l'or (1670-
1770)," Annales, Economies-Soci6tes-Civilisations, 5 (Apr.-June 1950), especially 190-97;
Charles R. Boxer, The Golden Age of Brazil, 1695-1750. Growing Pains of a Colonial Society
(University of California Press, 1969) pp. 57-60, 157, 258-59, and appendices 2 and 3; Wilhelm
L. von Eschwege, Pluto Brasiliensis (Berlin, 1833).
5 Calogeras, As minas, I, 112; Assumar to king, 12 December 1717, APMSG, Vol. 4, fols.
208v-209. In 1729 Dom Joao V granted permission to mining experts Alexandre Pichon and
Estevao Alier to go to Brazil for three years. APB, Vol. 26, docs. 77, 77a. Instructions (1733) to
Martinho de Mendonpa de Pina e Proenga, on assuming acting governorship of Minas Gerais,
urged him to encourage the development of machines to facilitate mining.-Colesam das
noticias dos primeiros descobrimentos das Minas na America, que fez o Dr. Caetano da Costa
Matoco, sendo Ouvidor Geral das do ouro preto de que tomou posse em FevrOde 1749, fols.
102-106; this fascinating document is in the Municipal Library of Sao Paulo.
6 This account
is based on Paul Ferrand, L'or a Minas Geraes (Bresil) (Belo Horizonte, 1913),
I, 21-67; Calogeras, As minas, I, 111-32; Andre Joao Antonil, Cultura e opulencia do Brasil por
suas drogas e .nas.. . , edited with a criticalcommentaryby Andr&eMansuy (Paris, 1968), Part
III, chap. 14. Observations made by John Mawe, Travels in the Interior of Brazil, Particularly in
the Gold and Diamond Districts (London, 1812) and Richard Burton, Explorations of the
Highlands of the Brazil with a Full Account of the Gold and Diamond Mines (London, 1869)
supplement von Eschwege's classic Pluto Brasiliensis. As early as 1719 at least one hydraulic
machine was in operation. APMSG, Vol. 12, fol. 75; RAPM, 1 July-Sept. 1896), 420.
7 APMSG, Vol. 4, fols. 247, 271v-72; Vol. 11, fols. 50v-53, 271v-72. Protests by the council of
Rio de Janeiro that leading buyers conducted all transactions within the customshouse and
enjoyed a virtual monopoly on sales, resulting in higher prices, were rejected by royal advisers
in the interests of the overall trade. APB, Vol. 49, fols. 100-5; Vol. 50, fols. 211-12. In a letter of
7 May 1751 to the king, the Council of Vila Rica provided an insight into prevailing values in the
mining region: ". . . grande numero de escravos que sdo os bens das Minas sendo certo que
muyta parte destes estao devendo os mesmos escravos que possuem, parecendo no exterior rico
o que na realidade he pobre, e vivendo como pobres muytos que na realidade sao ricos.
APMCMOP, Vol. 60, fols. 54v-59v.
8 An alvard (1721), described by the governor as "the most blessed law passed for the mining
areas," ordered that all slaves to be sold to satisfy creditors should be valued and creditors
obliged to accept them at a just price. APMSG, Vol. 4, fols. 222v-24; Vol. 5, fols. 61v-62; Vol.
16, fols. 85v-86; Vol. 21, fol. 3; Vol. 23, fols. 96-97; Vol. 44, fols. 102v-3; Vol. 46, doc. 34; Vol.
63, doc. 37. Also APMCMOP, Vol. 7, fol. 15; Vol. 9, fols. 51v-52v. On the law of 19 February
1752, see APMSG, Vol. 35, doc. 178; Vol. 50, fols. 56v-57; APMCMOP, Vol. 9, fols. 50v-51v;
Vol. 32, fols. 165v-66v; Vol. 63, fols. 34, 130-31; Vol. 69, fols. 115v-16. In his "Instruceao para o
governo da capitania de Minas Gerais" (1780), crown judge Jose Joao Teixeira Coelho ques-
tioned the value of this exemption, PIAPM,8 (Jan.-June 1903), 506-8.
9 Some "mining societies" were established. APMSG, Vol. 44, fols. 103-4v. Collaboration
between miners, urged by governor Dom Rodrigo Jose de Meneses (1780), paid off hand-
somely, RAPM, 2 (Apr.-June 1897), 313.
10 On the "fifths," see Manoel S. Cardozo, "The Collection of the Fifths in Brazil, 1695-
1709," HAHR, 20 (Aug. 1940), 359-79, and his Alguns subsidies para a hist6ria da cobranpa do
quinto na Capitania de Minas Gerais ate 1735 (Lisbon, 1937). On hardshipsimposed by this tax,
see RAPM, 2 (Apr.-June 1897), 287-309, 320-24; 10 (Jan.-June 1905), 78-82. Impact of fiscal
change on miners is described in APMSG, Vol. 4, fols. 247, 250; Vol. 35, doc. 133; APMCMOP,
Vol. 9, fols. 13v-14; Vol. 60, fols. 54v-59v.
11 On revenues from import taxes, see Myriam Ellis, Contribuikdo ao estudo do abas-
tecimento das areas mineradoras do Brasil no seculo XVIII (Rio de Janeiro, 1961).
14
On the 1720 decrease, see APMSG, Vol. 11, fols. 244v-47v, 287v-88v. The 1723 figure is
based on Council of Vila Rica to king, 22 December 1723, APMCMOP, Vol. 9, fols. 9v-10v. A
"head count" in 1728, for a "voluntary" contribution to royal marriages, placed the slave
population at 52,348. APMSG, Vol. 24, fols. 4-7; APMDF, Vol. 47, fols. 64v-66v. Figures for
1716-20 are based on capitation records (APMSG, Vol. 11, fols. 275-76, 280-81, 287v-88v):
allowance must be made for discrepancies in the counting of slaves belonging to clerics. Overall
estimates are based on Goulart, Escraviduo, pp. 139-45. His figure for Sabara in 1723 (9,488)
should be modified upwards and based on the 1720 capitation (8,031) instead of that for 1718
(which reads 5,771 and not 5,721). Ibid., p. 140, n. 28. See also APMSG, Vol. 11, fols. 280-81;
Vol. 13, fols. 25v-27, and APMDF, Vol. 44, fols. 13v-15. This brings his estimate of 50,000 more
in line with the 53,000 reported above.
15 Slave Concentrations
1716-17 1717-18 1718-19 1719-20 1728
Vila do Carmo 6,834 10,974 10,937 9,812 17,376
Vila Rica 6,271 7,110 7,708 7,653 11,521
Vila Real 4,905 5,712 5,771 4,902 7,014
Sao Joao 3,051 2,282 2,216 1,868 3,448
Sao Jose 1,393 1,324 1,184 5,419
Vila Nova 3,848 4,347 4,478 4,051 4,791
Principe 3,000 2,096 2,090 1,671 1,934
Pitangui 283 415 359 845
Clerics' slaves 897 (included in overall totals above)
17 See the dire predictions of Assumar to the king, 28 November 1719, APMSG, Vol. 4, fols.
238-39.
18 Goulart, Escraviddo, pp. 141-45, 158, 169; Edison Carneiro, Ladinos e crioulos (Estudos
s6bre o negro no Brasil) (Rio de Janeiro, 1964), pp. 22-23.
19 On the demography of Minas Gerais, see Dauril Alden, "The Population of Brazil in the
Late Eighteenth Century: A Preliminary Study," HAHR, 43 (May 1963), 180-83, 188. The 1776
census (published in RAPM, 2 [1897], 511 and Publica96es do Arquivo Nacional, 9 [1909], 73)
recorded 70,664 whites and 249,105 blacks and mulattos.
20 This was a
frequent topic in gubernatorial correspondence. APMSG, Vol. 20, doc. 158;
Vol. 23, fols. 6, 101, 109v-110; Vol. 32, fols. 86v-88, 105.
21 The 1776 census recorded 41,677 males and 28,987 females. Cf. Thales de Azevedo,
Povoanento da Cidade do Salvador, 2nd. ed. (Sao Paulo, 1955), pp. 184-206; Philip D. Curtin,
The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), pp. 19, 28, 46.
22 This percentage is based on figures-931 males, 97 females-for that part of the Morro in
the district of Ant6nio Dias. APMDF, Vol. 39, fols. 49v-108v. Cf. Vol. 35, fol. 134 and Vol. 39,
fol. 79v.
25 Estimates in Curtin, Atlantic Slave Trade, pp. 205-10 and tables 62, 63. See also Pierre
Verger, Bahia and the West Coast Trade (1549-1851) (Ibadan, 1964) and Flux et reflux de la
traite des negres entre le Golfe de Benin et Bahia de Todos os Santos du XViie au XVIIIe s-ecle
(Paris and the Hague, 1968).
26 APMDF, Vol. 22; Vol. 39, fols. 49v-108v; the term "Mina" is defined in Curtin, Atlantic
Slave Trade, pp. 208-9.
27 APMSG, Vol. 5, fol. 108.
28
On ethnic origins, see APMDF, especially Vols. 19-39. For Bahia, see Carlos B. Ott,
Forma~do e evolupdo ktnica da Cidade do Salvador (Salvador, 1955-1957), I, 53-75 and II,
appendix 3; cf. Frederick P. Bowser, The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524-1650 (Stanford
University Press, 1974), pp. 39-44.
29 APMSG, Vol. 4, fols. 238-39; Vol. 11, fol. 184. On brotherhoods, see A. J. R. Russell-
Wood, "Black and Mulatto Brotherhoods in Colonial Brazil: A Study in Collective Behavior,"
HAHR, 54 (Nov. 1974), especially 579-81.
54.1 percent; 1731-40, 34.2 percent; 1741-50, 29.7 percent; 1751-60, 27.1 percent; 1761-70,
23.5 percent. Source: Curtin, Atlantic Slave Trade, table 62.
34 Donald Ramos has written a pioneering study, based on the 1804 census in Vila Rica-
"Marriage and the Family in Colonial Vila Rica," HAHR, 55 (May, 1975), 200-25.
35 Russell-Wood, "Colonial Brazil," in David W. Cohen and Jack B. Greene, editors, Neither
Slave nor Free. The Freedman of African Descent in the Slave Societies of the New World (The
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972), pp. 89-90, 94-96, 111-13; Assumar to king, 28
November 1719, APMSG, Vol. 4, fols. 238-39. In 1747 the attorney of the Miseric6rdia referred
to protected "escravas da sociedade" in blackmarket activities. APMCMOP, Vol. 54, fol. 3.
of gold, migrants had been satisfied to settle as factors or bursars on plantations, or be employed
as cowboys; the exploitation of gold had disrupted this pattern. APB, Vol. 50, fols. 305v, 311.
54 This account is based on Jean Barbot, Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea
. . . (London, 1746), bk. III, chs. 4, 11, 17, 18, 20; E. L. R. Meyerowitz, The Sacred State of the
Akan (London, 1951) pp. 198-205; R. S. Rattray, Ashanti (London, 1923), pp. 300-15; Philip J.
C. Dark, An Introduction to Benin Art and Technology (Oxford, 1973). In 1816 the Dutch
governor-general in ElMina observed that the slave trade had contributed to the drastic
reduction in gold diggers. See Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century. The Structure and
Evolution of a Political Order (Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. 679; cf. pp. 244-45,
434-36.
63 APMSG, Vol. 1, fols. 181v-82v, 191v-92v; Vol. 5, fols. 180v-83; Vol. 10, fols. 74b, 79; Vol.
37, fols. 48-49v; APMCMOP, Vol. 33, fols. 26-27v; APB, Vol. 47, fols. 130-35.
64 .. . estes Americanos reputao os seus negros por semiDeoses.. . .", APMSG, Vol. 13, fol.
13.
6 APMSG, Vol. 4, fol. 204; Vol. 11, fols. 279-80, 282v-84; Vol. 27, fols. 14v-15; APMCMOP,
Vol. 6, fols. 53v-54.
66 APMSG, Vol. 2, fols. 108v-10; Vol. 21, fol. 93; Vol. 50, fols. 80-82v. In 1783 the Council of
Marianaprotested to the queen that fees for "bushwhacking captains" established in 1722 were
now out of keeping with economic reality, the cost of redeeming a slave exceeding his value.
APMSG, Vol. 19, docs. 99,119.
67 -. . . porq' he sem duvida q' nada desperta tanto a confianga dos negros como a q' delles
fazem os homens brancos," APMSG, Vol. 11, fols. 130-33v.