Remediados senhores: pequenos escravistas na freguesia de São José do Rio das Mortes, c.1790 c.1844.

Abstract

This thesis discusses the possibilities of the emergence and stability over time of a broad group of slave-based small farmers following the decline of gold mining in Minas Gerais. It focuses on the parish of São José do Rio das Mortes from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. The principal sources used in this study are nominal lists, maps of population, parish records and estate inventories. The date from these sources are used in serial and case studies to characterize the history of the local population, the economic accommodation to farming, the internal diversity of the small masters, the evolution and distribution of wealth and, finally, the organization of households and family ties engendered by small farmers. The findings suggest that a dynamic market and the slave system shaped this sector of small farmers. On the one hand, the market economy opened up opportunities for employment and allowed for the accumulation of wealth. On the other hand, the slave society itself produced some smallholders through manumission and miscegenation, and afforded them access to non-family labor. We conclude that, in São José, this segment of slaveholders was crucial in maintaining the stability of the slave system.