By his person, assets, and heirs: first experiences with indentured Portuguese migrants in Brazil (1830-1865)

• Grant number: 22/09657-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2023
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Cesar Goncalves
• Grantee: Marina Simões Galvanese
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to study the indentured Portuguese migrants in Brazil between 1830 and 1865. Pieces of evidence indicate the influx of dispossessed Portuguese to Brazil during this period. Those individuals committed their 'persons, assets, and heirs' to travel to Brazil, where they weren't allowed to land unless someone that could pay the travel costs in exchange for their services hired them. Some Portuguese celebrated their labor contracts in Portugal and had their travels paid for in advance by their future employers in Brazil. The indentured labor, denounced as a new kind of 'white slavery' in Portugal, was regulated by Brazilian laws and stimulated by private companies and landowners who aimed to introduce cheap and abundant European workers into the country. Through the approach provided by the Global History of Labor, this research will consider the diversity of labor arrangements that coexisted in the nineteenth century, such as similar experiences adopted in other geographies. Therefore, this research will analyze the Portuguese indentured migration through studies about second slavery and indentured labor. It will collect a documental corpus in Brazil and Portugal, consisting: of reports written by province presidents in Brazil, civil governors in Portugal and by colonization companies, and travelers, diplomatic correspondence, migrants registrations in Brazil and Portugal, and information concerning the ship captains who made this migratory flow possible. The main research goals are: (i) to clarify the conditions in which the influx of indentured migrants occurred in Brazil; (ii) to examine the relationship between this migratory flow and the slave trade suppression; (iii) to observe the involvement of Brazilian politicians with this flow and (iv) to analyze if those first experiences had influenced future strategies to attract migrants to Brazil. (AU)