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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 12 



those in southern Minas Gerais, the need for Afri- 

 can labor was less felt. At the same time, contrary 

 to what some writers have thought, Africans and 

 their descendants have long been in this region in 

 considerable numbers. In the will of a fazendeiro 

 who died in 1691, a mulatto overseer, his wife, and 

 a mulatto woman were freed, and the owner in- 

 structed his heirs not to sell other Negro slaves and 

 "to treat them with that love and charity which 

 I always showed toward them." An inventory 

 taken in 1713 of the property of his son, whose 

 house stood about 3 miles from the place where the 

 village is now located, listed among this man's 

 possessions 101 Negro slaves besides 204 Indian 

 administrados. A subsequent inventory taken in 

 1760 listed on this fazenda at that time 102 Negro 

 slaves, in addition to 101 Indian admi?vistrados}^ 

 The parish marriage records for this community, 

 which are now on file at the Curia M etropolitana 

 in Sao Paulo, list 27 marriages for the 4 years 

 1720-23. One marriage was that of a man and 

 woman referred to as gentio de Guine, a general- 

 ized expression for persons born in Africa. The 

 participants in four other marriages were all 

 listed as escravos, or slaves. If this term refers 

 to Negroes, as is quite likely, since the same regis- 

 try also uses the terms administrados and Carijos " 

 which presumably refer to Indians, eight other 

 marriage partners were Negroes. In addition, an 

 escravo is listed as having married a Carijo and a 

 Carijo as having married a mulatto woman. Of 

 the 54 marriage partners listed in these records, 

 therefore, twelve, or over one-fifth, were probably 

 of African descent. 



Incomplete records of deaths in the parish dur- 

 ing the 48 years from 1732 to 1779, inclusive, list 

 65 escrawos among 283 entries. Six persons are 

 listed as forros (freedmen) and one as a farda^^ 

 presumably a mulatto woman. Since the term 

 gentio da terra, or literally "pagans of the coun- 

 try," often employed in early documents to refer 

 to Indians, also appears in these records, in addi- 

 tion to the term administrados, and there are still 



such other entries as "an Indian man from the 

 aldeia of Baruery," "an Indian woman from the 

 aldeia of Sam Joseph de Jactarez" and "a Bororo 

 Indian" (in two cases), it seems reasonable to as- 

 sume that 71, or a little more than one-fourth, of 

 these 283 deaths were of persons of African de- 

 scent." Among: other individuals mentioned in 

 these records, such as the parents, wife, husband, 

 or other relative of the deceased, 63 are referred 

 to as escravos, 8 as "freedmen," 2 as fardas, and 

 1 as a midata. 



In the early nineteenth century, a considerable 

 portion of the population in the connnunity must 

 have been African. The marriage records for the 

 parish list 124 marriages of Negro slaves between 

 the years 1819 and 1862. When one considers that 

 the condition of this registry suggests that several 

 sheets are missing, and that it is also likely that 

 not all slaves of marriageable age were formally 

 married and listed in the registry, it would seem 

 reasonable to conclude that there were a consid- 

 erable number of Africans and their descendants 

 in the community at that time. 



In 1766, a decree of the Portuguese Government 

 ordered a listing of "all persons, nobles, plebians, 

 mixed bloods, and free blacks" by the Companhias 

 de Ordenamga and, beginning the following year, 

 censuses were taken periodically for several dec- 

 ades. The first of these censuses listed for the 

 community under study, 53 heads of families who 

 gained their living from planting, 5 from spinning, 

 3 from weaving, 2 from retail activities, and 1 each 

 from trading, carpentry, and tailoring. One 

 "lived from his lands" and another was a ca/pitdo 

 de muto?" There were at that time 215 fogos ^ 

 with 542 free men and boys and 505 free women 

 and girls, of whom 24 were aggregados (hired 

 laborers) .^^ 



In 1835, a census which had been ordered taken 

 by the Provincial Assembly of Sao Paulo listed in 

 the immicipio of which the community under study 



" The administrados were furnished houses in which to live 

 and plots of land on which to plant crops for their own use. They 

 were expected to give 3 days* service a week in return for the 

 use of these dwellings. 



" Some time after the arrival of the Europeans, the term 

 Cariju apparently became in this region a generalized expres- 

 sion to refer to any Indian. 



^^ .\ term which in general means mixed blood, especially of 

 African and European origin. 



" In these records, the indication de nasfam Mina (of the 

 Mina "nation") appears seven times; de nas^am Angolla, four 

 times ; rfe nasram Oanguella, twice, as also de nasfom Banguella, 

 both of which are probably alternate spellings of Benguela ; and 

 the more general term gentio (or nasram) de Quini^, four times. 



™ A "bush captain" hired to track down fugitive slaves. 



" Literally, fires; I. e., households. 



'- The free population included 542 men and boys, 505 women 

 and girls. Three age groups were given for each sex, the cate- 

 gories being somewhat different. Males were listed as "over 

 60" (44), "14 to 60' (277), and "under 14" (221) ; females as 

 "over 50" (49), "12 to 50" (292) and "under 12" (164). 



