Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-20T02:25:43.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Politics of Immigration to Eighteenth-Century Brazil: Azorean Migrants to Santa Catarina*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Extract

Our knowledge of colonial Brazilian demography is appallingly low. European migration to Brazil remains a particularly neglected topic. It is no small irony that the migration of African slaves to Portuguese America is better documented than free white immigration. Surprisingly, reliable information is perhaps scarcest for the eighteenth-century gold-rush period when immigration to Brazil preoccupied Crown and treasure seekers alike. The manner of social and physical conditions which pushed individuals and families from their homes, the numerical ebb and flow of settlement patterns, even the simple mechanics of transport to the colony, remain caught inside a nebulous swirl of mythology, conjecture, and impressionistic conclusions. After two and a half centuries historians have scarcely gone beyond Antonil's oft quoted comment that ‘lured by the insatiable thirst for gold, a large quantity of Portuguese and foreigners arrive each year on the fleet heading to the mines […] the mixture is of every condition of people: men and women, young and old, poor and rich, nobles and plebeians, laymen and clerics, and friars from various orders, many of whom possess neither house nor convent in Brazil’.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 Marcilio, Maria Luiza, ‘The Population of Colonial Brazil’, The Cambridge History of Latin America II (Cambridge 1984) 3766 and her Bibliographical essay (811–814) is the best succinct overview. Unfortunately, early modern Portuguese demography history is perhaps even less developed. Those interested in the topic might consultGoogle ScholarNazareth, J. Manuel et al., A demografia portuguesa emfinais do Anligo Regime (Lisbon 1983), a case study of the town ofGoogle Scholar, Coruche and Serrao, Joaquin Verissimo eds., A Populaçao de Portugal em 1798. O Censo de Pina Manique (Paris 1970),Google Scholar which is limited by the narrow categories of Manique's census. Rocha-Trindade, Maria Beatriz, Bibliografia da Emigracao Portuguesa (Lisbon 1984) andGoogle ScholarEstudios Sobre A Emigraçao Portuguesa (Lisbon 1982) mainly deal with 19th- and 20th-century migration. Although dated the best short overview remains the articleGoogle Scholar‘Emigraca-o’, Dictionario de Historia de Portugal (6 vols.; Lisbon 1978) II, 363373Google Scholar.

2 Antonil, Andre Joao, Cultura e Opulentia do Brazil […] (Lisbon 1711; facsimile reprint 1978), Livro III, Chapter Five, 167Google Scholar.

3 See Marcilio, ‘Population’ for the current state of Brazilian demographic studies. Alden, Dauril, ‘The Population of Brazil in the late Eighteenth Century: A Preliminary Survey’, Hispanic American Historical Reuieta 43 2 (1963) 173205 remains the best overviewCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, Codice 952, Vol. 21, fl. 106, fls 260–266 for passport registers. The Arquivo Historico Ultramarino lists passports via their destination, e.g. Bahia, Passaportes, Caixas 1–8 1804–1832. Rio de Janeiro, Caixa 302 has a few passports for 1711. Degredado lists may be found in ANTT Feitos findos police records. For gypsies see Donovan, William, ‘Changing Patterns of Social Deviance and Gypsies in Early Modern Portugal’, forthcoming in The Journal of Social HistoryGoogle Scholar.

5 Marcilio, ‘Population’ and the sources given there.

6 The following was in part suggested by Potter, Jim, ‘Demographic Development and Family Structure’ in: Greene, Jack P. and Poole, J. R. eds., Colonial British America: Essays in the New History of the Early Modern Era (Baltimore 1984) especially 130132Google Scholar.

7 Gate mortality consisted of those migrants who died en route and during the initial acclimation period.

8 In colonial Brazil, migrants from the Minho region, for example, dominated commerce while gypsies monopolized the interregional slave trade by the eighteenth century's end. Rio de Janeiro was particularly known for its Azorean population in the 1630s. Tilly, Charles, ‘Migration in Modern European History’ in: McNeill, William H. and Adams, Ruth S. eds., Human Migration: Patterns and Policies (London 1978) 4872; Donovan, ‘Gypsies’Google Scholar.

9 Collecçao da legislaçao do reino de Portugal […] 1603 ate 1761 Col. II, Alvara of November 25, 1709; Simao d a Costa described how the gold-rush was ruining Brazilian agriculture, Rau, Virginia and Silva, Maria Fernanda Gomes da eds., Os Manuscritos do Arquivo da Casa De Cadaval Respeitantes Ao Brasil (2 vols. Coimbra 19561958) 370372Google Scholar.

10 Arquivo Historico UltramarinoBahia, Codex 252, Consultas a capitania da Baia fl. 251v, MarchApril 1703; AHU, Rio de Janeiro, 2.861, Jan. 25, 1705; BNRJ Codex 952 Vol. 14, Carta Regia (CR) March 19, 1709, Aviso, April 5, 1709; Vol. 18, CR April 7, 1713; Vol. 22, Feb. 12, Provisao. See too, ibid. CR Feb. 15, 1717 and English Public Record Office, State papers, Portugal, 89/25 fls. 7,58–59,62 for the case of Ralph Culston, an English merchant in Rio deJaneiro.

11 Os Manuscritos II, 197 and BNRJ Codex 64, Vol. 1 Jan. 21, 1724 for royal complaint s about non-enforcement of expulsion laws. Joao Muzzi, a naturalized Italian, and John Sherman (Joao Charem), an Englishman married to a Brazilian, were prominent Rio merchants, and John Adoph Sehvam, a prominen t Rio doctor, were just a few of those who successfully remained in Brazil. Examples of foreigners elsewhere are easily found.

12 Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro Codice, 952 vol. 21 fl 106, 260–266; ibid vol 26, ffl 398–401 March 1, 1732 for examples of passports lists. Married women and children are also evident. Russell-Wood, A. J. R., ‘Female and Family in the Economy and Society of Colonial Brazil’ in: Lavrin, Asuncion ed., Latin American Women, 6266Google Scholar.

13 Boxer, C. R., The Golden Age of Brazil (Berkeley 1963) 3946Google Scholar.

14 See Bath, B. H. Slicher van, ‘The Absence of White Contract Labour in Spanish America during the Colonial Period’, Colonialism and Migration: Indentured Labour Before and After Slavery (Leiden 1986) 1932 discusses why indenture d servitude remained unknown in colonial Spanish America. As he points out, unlike the Portuguese, Spain conquered the most densely populated areas of AmericaCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino Consulta do Ultramarino do Rio de aneiro, vol. 26 (1627–40) fl 3–5 October 30, 1726; ibid fl 65–66, December 17, 1729.

16 Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, Codice 952, Vol. 24 fl 348, September 7, 1729.

17 Schwartz, Stuart, ‘Colonial Brazil, c. 1580-c. 1750: Plantations and Peripheries’ in: Bethell, Leslie ed., The Cambridge History of Latin America II (Cambridge 1984) provides a succinct summaryGoogle Scholar.

18 Antonil, , Cultura e Opulencia, Chapter Five, 168Google Scholar.

19 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino Ceara, Caixa 1, #93, October 1720.

20 Reprinted in Memorias do Distrito Diamantino da comarca do Serro Frio, Joaquim Felicio dos Santos, (reprint; Sao Paulo 1976) 56. It is worth noting in this regard that ‘scandalous behavior’ mainly consisted of women going to church ‘dressed rich and pompously, and totally inappropriate and improper to their social condition’.

21 Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, Codice, 952, vol 26, ff 398–401. See also Russell-Wood, A. J. R., Fidalgos and Philanthropists: The Santa Casa da Misericordia of Bahia, 1550–1755 (Berkeley 1968) 177179CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 BNJR, Sala do Manuscriptos, Cartos do Officios do Conde das Galveas, 1738–1749, doc #124, ca. 1738.

23 BNRJ, Cartos do Officio 1735–1746, doc #93, Galveas to Gomes Freire de Andrade, October 28, 1737, ‘vim a asentar pro conclucao que a collonia ha outra Mombaca da America; o cabedal, o sangue, e o tempos que sacrificamos na sua conquista, e na sua conservacao […]’.

24 AHU, Rio de Janeiro, #4080–1 ‘Mappa Geral de Tudo o q esta Praca d a Nova Colinia do Sacramento’ lists 235 fogos (hearths) in 1722 Dauril Alden, Royal Government in Colonial Brazil (Berkeley 1968) 59–142 provides an excellent description of the dispute and Portugal's actions.

25 Dos Remedios para a Falta de Gente (Lisbon 1655)Google Scholar reprinted in Antologia dos Fconomistas Portugueses. Seculo XVII (Lisbon 1974) 119–163. Apart from a few pioneering case studies like Marcade, Jacques, Une Comarque Portugaise: Ourique entre 1750 et 1800 (Paris 1971),Google ScholarNazareth, J. Manuel and Sousa, Fernando de, A demografia portuguesa em finais do Antigo Regime: aspectos sociodemograficos de Corunche (Lisbon 1983) and the series of graduate thesis done at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa on Lisbon parishes, early modern Portuguese demographic history remains unknown. The few pre-nineteenth-century censuses that exist are too problema'tical to be statistically useful. The articleGoogle Scholar‘Emigracao’ in: Dictionario de Historia de Portugal (6 vols.; Lisbon 1979) 363373 remains the best overviewGoogle Scholar.

26 See ‘Emigraçao’, 363–373; Amorim, Maria Noverta Simas BettencourtGuimaraes, 1580–1819. Estudo Demografico (Lisbon 1987) is the best recent demographic study of early modern Portugal. She unfortunately neglects 18th century migration although her rational ‘Noticias sobre a populacao no Seculo XVIII’, 476, strikes me as unconvincing. Franquelim Neiva Soares of the Seminario de Santiago, has shown me information taken from th e Livros de Visitacoes found in the Braga archives that yield important information about population movements. Impressionistic, but valuable information is also found in background investigations of the Santo Oficio for familiars in the Guimaraes area found i n the ANTTGoogle Scholar.

27 Collecçao da legislafao do reino de Portugal […] 1603 ate 1761, Vol 1, p. 473 Alvara of September 6, 1645; p. 484 Alvara of July 4, 1646; pp. 486–87 September 5, 1646, Vol. 2, Alvara of December 6, 1660, Collecçao chronologica da legislacao portuguesa, Alvara of February 8, 1646; The Alvaras of March 9, 1688 and March 3, 1689 aimed at sailing outside the Heel system were the facto anti-emigratio n laws. Informaçao de Estado do Brasil e de suas necessidades’, Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro 25 (1862) 466Google Scholar.

28 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino Rio de Janeiro, #3.383 & 3.384.

29 See the Gazela de Lisboa April 11, 1720.

30 Sergio, Antonio, ‘As Duas Politicas Nacionais’ in: Chaves, Castelo Branco et al. eds., Ensaios (Lisbon 1972);Google ScholarGodinho, Vitorino Magalhaes, Estrutura da Antigua Sociedade Portuguesa (Lisbon 1980)Google Scholar.

31 Gemery, Henry A., ‘Markets for Migrants: English Indentured Servitude and Emigration in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’ in: Emmer, P. C. ed., Colonialism and Migration (Dordrecht etc. 1986) 50;Google ScholarAltman, Ida, ‘Emigrants and Society: an approach to the Background of Colonial Spanish America’, Comparative Studies in Society and History (1988) 173175 for the example of SevilleGoogle Scholar.

32 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Macos do Reino, #1 & 2, contain examples of passport requests and denials.

33 The Azores, for example, remained under the control of donatorios until 1766. Collecçao da legislaçao do reino de Portugal […] 1603 ate 1761 Vol. 4, pp. 178–180. Alvara ofJuly 4, 1758 prohibiting Azoreans from leaving without passports.

34 Carta de Don Joao III to Pedro Anes deo Canto, September 11, 1550, and various documents from 1674–1688 reprinted in Jaime Cortasao, Alexendre de Gusmao e o Tratado do Madrid (8 vols.; Rio de Janeiro 1950–1959) Vol. 2, Part III, 297–408.

35 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco 1, #9. This 1747 document lists a total population of 127,601 in 106 parishes, 34,163 households (Fogos) divided between 108,996 ‘adults’ (maiores) and 18,605 minors. Duncan, T. Bently, Atlantic islands: Madeira, The Azores, and the Cape Verde Islands in Seventeenth-Century Commerce and Navigation (Chicago 1972), listed the population in 1700 at ca 77,000, pp. 80, 120–121, 147. The nine islands were Corvo, Flores, Pico, Fayal, Sao Jorge, Graciosa, Terceira, Sao Miguel, and Santa MariaGoogle Scholar.

36 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco 1, #98, (nd. ca. 1750) describes problems in the Azores and Madeira; Ibid. Maco 2, #94 describes food riots and the violent results of Crown interference in tax farms; Ibid. #96 (no date) describes the damage the Crown's policy on Brazil has done to both the Azores and Madeira's economy. The Azores were allowed to annually send 3 small ships to Brazil. All attempts to increase that number or the size of the ships failed. Gil, Maria Olimpia da Rocha, ‘Os Azores E A Nova Economia de Mercado, Seculos XVl-XVlII’, Arquipelago 3 (01 1981) 371391. Unfortunately, the few published contemporary accounts, e.g.Google ScholarCordeiro, Antonio, Historia Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal Sugeytas no Oceano Occidental (Lisbon 1717), speak little of economic problemsGoogle Scholar.

37 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco, 2 #9; Colleccao da legislafao do reino de Portugal […] 1603 ate 1761, Vol. 2, pp. 521–511 Avara of February 28, 1748 for an example of commercial restrictions; Arquivo Historico Ultramarino Azores, Maco 1 #6 1738 is a petition from a jailed ship's captain. In the Arquivo de Hospital SaoJose, Francisco Pinhiero col, is found correspondence between merchants in Lisbon and the Azores clearly reveals problems even in trade to Portugal cause by discriminatory legislation. Part of that correspondence is published in Lisanti, Luis ed., Negodos Colonials (5 vols.; Sao Paulo 1973)Google Scholar.

38 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco 2, #32 (1747) describes the ease and willingness of poor islanders t o leave for Brazil. When the ship Princess of Heavens and Souls landed in 1722 it had t o change the entire crew. NC 2 p 312, August 10, 1722; See Ida Altman, ‘Emigrants’, 173 et passim.

39 Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, Cartorio do oficios, offers abundant evidence of continuing commercial and legal ties between migrants and the islands. Boxer, , Golden Age, 1011 for Azorean migrants in Brazil in the late 17th centuryGoogle Scholar.

40 Apart from their names no information was given about the three women passengers.

41 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores Maco 3, #31, March 25, 1761.9.

42 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco 2, #9. The request and replies are fourteen pages long. The request was reviewed on August 3, 1746 and granted on August 8.

43 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, ibid. ‘Os sitios a q se devem destinar estes casaes sao os mesmos q se contem nesta representacao, principiando pella Ilha de Sta. Catharina, como mais exposta a alguma invasao.’ Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Rio de Janeiro, #12, 444 ‘A Sua proposta sobre se transportarem nos Navios das Ilhas povadores com familias capazes de darem filhos para Soldatos.’

44 Dispatch from the Overseas Council, 5 September 1746, reprinted in Gusmao, part 3, Vol. 2, pp. 446–338.

45 Gusmao, Vol. 3, pp. 461–467; Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco 2, #2, 3July 1749 and #43, 28 September 1751. The transportation contract to Pará was considerably lower. Jose Alvares Torres contracted to carry one thousand Azorean settlers for 19$350 a passenger to Para and Maranhao. Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco 2, #44, February 18, 1752.

46 Cortesao, Gusmao III, vol. 2, 448–467 reproduces the Regimento para of transport? dos casais and Feliciano Velho de Oldenberg's 1747 contract. The oft repeated suggestion that the separation of sexes stemmed from Moorish tradition strikes me as subsidiary to the questions of order and health. Boxer, , Golden Age 253254 taken from CortesaoGoogle Scholar.

47 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Rio de Janeiro, #14572–74, 5 July 1749. ‘porque venderan o bens, que tinha passa j a de dous annos para pagarem suas dividas. […] se acham com suas familias no mais mizeravel estado que se pode considerar, por nao terem deque viver, ao que se deve attender e a o grande perigo emmenent e a o genero feminino de Mais e filhas ao peccado da Incontinencia, a e hum e outro de furtarem para se nutrirem.’

48 Passenger ages are scattered but see Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores Maco 2, #59 description of 1,000 islanders transported to Para from 1751 to 1754. Of those 60 were under the age of three. Colonial officials invariably complained about over age and infirm settlers, Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Rio deJaneiro, #14571–74. Note Gottlieb Mittelberger's 1750 comments on child mortality on the North Atlantic crossing ‘Children for 1 to 7 years rarely survive the voyage: and many a time parents are compelled to see their children miserably suffer and die from hunger, thirst and sickness, and then to see them cast into the water. I witnessed such misery in no less than 32 children in our ship, all of whom were thrown into the sea. The parents grieve all the more since their children find no resting-place in the earth, but are devoured by the monsters of the sea.’ Journey to America (Cambridge Mass. 1960), ed. and translated by Oscar Handlin and John CliveGoogle Scholar.

49 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Rio, #13.264–13.265.

50 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Rio de Janeiro, #14643–14646; #14647 contains a description and a thirty-three page investigation which includes the interrogation of some settlers.

51 Ibid. Survivors said most of the 500 chickens used for rations died or became ill by the storm.

52 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, ibid. Feliciano Velho Oldenburg lacked one hundred and twenty-one colonists to fulfill his original contract but it is unclear whether that was due to shipboard mortality or simply loading fewer people than the contract stipulated. Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco 2, #45 28 April 1752.

53 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Rio de Janeiro, #14.647.

54 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Caixa, Rio de Janeiro, #14632–6. ‘tambem vejo neste Navio muita gente Velha, e inutil, sem outr o fim que de sustentas se a' expensas Regias […] tern vindo muinlas familias nobres; e como es, nao Sabem, men podem trabalho e pela sua m.ta pobreza menos com que comprem escravos, ou paquem a trabalhadores […] vir de Angola por conta da Real Fazenda hu transporte de Escravos capaze de trabalhar p.a. distribuirem a credito pelos homens de bem e familias graves que se acharem neste Estabelecimt.’

55 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Rio de Janeiro, #14571–74, for complaints about selecting non suitable settlers. See Borges Fortes, Casaes (Rio de Janeiro, 1932) pp. 61 to 65, for letters to the Overseas Council about selection fraud. Arquivo Historico Ultramarino Azores, Maco 4, #26, 40, & 45 and Madeira #15–17 & #82 for shipper complaints.

56 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco 2, #35 February 26, 1756. It is unclear whether the 274 million figure included the islanders sent to Para. Ibid. #59. In 1754 the crown paid 497$790 to Benito Jose Alvarez for contracting to carry two thousand people. Ibid. #59. Alden, , Royal Government, 8696 gives a succinct summary of the Madrid Treaty. Franca, Lisbon na Epoca de Pombal, is the best survey of rebuilding in lieu of the available literature. Travellers accounts reveal that substantial earthquake damage remained evident as late as 1800. For Pombal seeGoogle ScholarMaxwell, Kenneth, Conflicts and Conspiracies: Brazil and Portugal 1750–1808 (Cambridge 1973)Google Scholar.

57 Collecao Chronologica Vol. 4, Alvara of July 4, 1758, p. 178–180. For passport restrictions see Alvara, August 13, 1760 Vol. 4, p. 747 and Edital acerca passaportes March 3, 1761, p. 793; Arquivo Historico Ultramarino Maco 3, #31 March 25, 1761 for the arrest of illegal migrants.

58 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, documentos avulsos, Macos 1 & 2 for poor economic conditions, eg. Maco 1, #56, January 28, 1783 and Maco 1, #57, January 28, 1784, ‘os portos do Brasil ja nao dao utilidade alguma aos moradores destas Ilhas’. For attempts to change shipping restrictions to Brazil, see Maco 2, #60, June 2, 1755. Chronologica, Vol. 4, Alvara of July 20, 1758, 178–180 for continuing shipping resstrictions; Collecçao chronologica […] Leis Exlravagantes (4 vols.; Coimbra 1819) IV, Alvara ofjuly 4, 1758, p. 626 for migration banGoogle Scholar.

59 Alden, ‘The Population of Brazil’; Boiteux, Lucas Alexandre, ‘Acorianos e Madeirenses em Santa Catarina’, RHIGB 219 (1953) 122169;Google ScholarRau, Virginia et al., ‘Dados sobre a emigracao madeirense para o Brasil no seculo XVIII’, Coloquio International de Esludos Luso-Bmsileiros, Actas, (1964) 500 found 1,786 adults and children arrived in southern Brazil;Google ScholarSantos, Corcino Medeiros dos, Economia e Soaedade do Rio Grande do Sul, Seculo XVIII (Sao Paulo 1983); Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Colonia do Sacramento, Caixa #1 avulsos, ‘Mappa do Colonia do Sacramento de 1750’; Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Azores, Maco 2, #32 1747 ‘Se vem alistados mil e duzentos, e oitenta e hum [casais] qu e comprehendem o numero de 6939 pessoas de hum e outro sexo, e alem destas vao mais 1030 pessoas livres […] vindo incorporados som os mais casais’; see fts 43–46Google Scholar.

60 Santos, , Rio Grande do Sul, p. 21 and pp. 89 et passim;Google ScholarBrown, Gregory Girard, ‘The Evolution of Small Property Agriculture in Southern Brazil, 1747–1824’ (unpub. Ph.D. dissertation, Northern Illinois University 1978). Southern Brazilian farmers' prosperity ended with the arrival of American grain on Brazilian marketsGoogle Scholar.

61 Leo Heaps, Log of the Centurion […] Lord Anson's Flagship during His Circumnavigation, 1740–44 (reprint Londo n 1973); Perouse, John F. G. de la, The Voyage of La Perouse Round the World, in the Years 17851788 (2 vols.; London 1798);Google ScholarKrusenstern, Adam J. von, Voyage Round the World in the Years 1803–1806 (2 vols.; London, 1913);Google ScholarLangsdorff, Georg Heinrich von, Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World during the Years 1803–1807 (London 1817);Google Scholar Otto von Kotzebue and Adelbert von Chamisso, A Voyage of Discovery […] in the Years 1815–1818 (reprint New York 1968).