Slave reproduction and slave families in Mariana - 1850-1888.

Author(s)

Heloísa Maria Teixeira

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2002-01-18

Examining board members

Jose Flavio Motta; Renato Leite Marcondes; Nelson Hideiki Nozoe

• Advisor: Jose Flavio Motta

Abstract

Many are the studies dedicated to slave reproduction and slave families in Brazil. Only a few, though, focus on regions not engaged in export economy. This work, which belongs to the field of historical demography, studies slave reproduction and slave families in Mariana during the second half of the 19th century. Mariana, a locality in the province of Minas Gerais, turned to subsistence economy and internal market production since de decline of gold production. This work begins with a description of the main economic characteristics of Mariana and of its slave population, speculating on the strategies for maintaining slavery used in the region during that period. The structure and demographic characteristics of slave families were analyzed through information obtained in post-mortem inventories (our main source) and secondary sources such as wedding and baptism registries and records of slave purchases and sales. Additionally, those sources highlighted the importance of slave families in the process of development of slaveholdings in Mariana during the last decades of slavery in Brazil, a period marked by a legislation that was oriented to that process and has undeniably influenced it. (AU)