Not so protective, not so paternal: the exploitation of indigenous labor during the occupation of the Dutch West India Company in the northern captaincies (1630-1654)

• Grant number: 24/13868-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Alberto de Moura Ribeiro Zeron
• Grantee: Michel Martins Maranha
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The research aims to study the exploitation of indigenous labor, free and enslaved, during the occupation of the northern captaincies of Brazil by the Dutch West India Company (West-Indische Compagnie) between 1630 and 1654. From the beginning of their rule, the Company's leadership committed to ensuring the freedom of the indigenous people and restrain the abuses that occurred in the exploitation of free labor as a way to guarantee an alliance with them in the fight against the Portuguese. Based on the promises of these leaders, important authors who studied this topic characterized the Dutch attitude towards the indigenous people as "protective and paternal." However, what is observed in the documentation is that many portuguese settlers subordinated to the Dutch West India Company and dutch soldiers responsible for the indigenous people continued to abuse amerindian labor under paid work and kept many indigenous people in slavery, in conflict with the Company's directives. Based on this, the research will analyze the documentation of the Dutch West India Company to understand how these abuses in the exploitation of free and enslaved indigenous labor continued to occur, in contradiction to the guidelines issued by its leaders. To this end, the research will also seek to characterize the different projects for the exploitation of indigenous labor proposed by the Company's leaders, their soldiers, the subordinated Portuguese, and the indigenous people, aiming to understand the tensions that developed among these four groups regarding amerindian labor and how they modified the regulations and conditions of indigenous labor throughout the Dutch occupation.