This book examines the demographic and economic history of slavery in Minas Gerais, the single largest slave-holding region in Brazil, from its settlement in the early eighteenth century until the abolition of Brazilian slavery in 1888. It utilizes the largest database ever assembled on a slave population in the Americas to reconstruct and analyse the unique history of slave labour in Minas Gerais. This slave population was remarkable in its ability to diversify economically as well as in increasing through natural reproduction, rather than through importation via the trans-atlantic slave trade. Minas Gerais therefore invites comparison with the patterns of slave reproduction found in the United States’ South, heretofore considered unique. Extensively researched and finely documented, this book places the history of a unique Brazilian slave community into comparative perspective.
• Based on an extensive database of over 110,000 slaves, the largest ever assembled on any slave population in the Americas • Documents the uniquely successful transition of a mining-based monocultural economy to diversified economic structures • Indicates that the Minas Gerais population increased through natural reproduction
Contents
List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; Acknowledgments; Maps; 1. The mining-driven economy and its demise: from settlement to 1808; 2. Economic transformations, 1808–1888; 3. Demographic rhythms from settlement to the census of 1872; 4. Demographic aspects of slavery, 1720–1888; 5. Economic aspects of slavery, 1720–1888; 6. Conclusions; Appendixes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.