CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE — ^PIERSON 



11 



was then a part, 5 persons as being musicians, 14 

 as knowing carpentry, 7 tailoring, 6 shoemaking, 

 3 tinsmithing, and 1 wood carving. All other 

 heads of families were engaged in agriculture. 

 The principal planting is given as maize, beans, 

 and rice.-^ Tliere were in the mimiciplo 646 house- 

 holds with 4,196 persons, of whom 1,977 were men 

 and boys and 2,219 women and girls. Of these, 

 131, or 3 percent, were listed as "Indians" — 60 men 

 and boys and 71 women and girls; and 1,296, or 

 31 percent, as capfiros (slaves) — 6S0 men and boys 

 and 616 women and girls. Of the slaves, 683 (323 

 men and boys and 360 women and girls) were 

 given as "Brazilian-born blacks"; 291 (186 men 

 and boys and 105 women and girls) as ''blacks 

 from Africa;" and 322 (171 men and boys and 

 151 women and girls) as pardos. Of all blacks, 

 80 percent were slaves; while of the pardos, 76 

 percent were free.'* Unfortunately, these data 

 are not broken down by subdivisions of the 

 municipio so that one may know what portion 

 lived in the community under study. 



In 1850, the population of the community was 

 given as 1,270, of which 29 percent were slaves.^' 

 In 1886, there were still 158 slaves, 91 of whom 

 were men and boys, and 67 girls and women. Of 

 these, 38 were married and 4 widowed. Four were 

 slaves in the village and the others were on sur- 



-^ A comparatively small acreage was in manioc. Coffee pro- 

 duction was reported as 55,000 arrohaa (881 tons) ; cotton as 

 1,151 arrobas (73.6 bales). Comparatively small quantities of 

 sugar (10.8 tons) and pinga (154 gallons) also were produced 

 that year. There were 354 head of cattle and 63 horses. 



" During this year, 195 births were registered, 70, or 36 per- 

 cent, of slaves. Of all births, 102 were of boys. 93 of girls ; of 

 the slaves, 32 were boys, 38 girls ; of the free-born, 70 were 

 boys, 55 girls. Deaths totaled 114, or 81 less than births, of 

 which 35, or 31 percent, were of slaves. Of all deaths, 52 were 

 of masculine sex, 62 of feminine : of the slaves, 18 were masculine, 

 17 feminine ; of those who were free, 34 were masculine, 45 

 feminine. There were 35 marriages, of which 6, or 17 percent, 

 were of slaves. 



^ In the free population, there were 433 men and boys, 470 

 women and girls : in the slave population. 185 men and boys, 

 182 women and girls. The distribution by age was as follows : 



rounding farms. Nine persons had been born in 

 Africa. Only 14 other individuals had not been 

 born in Brazil, 8 of whom were Portuguese and 6 

 Italian. There were 531 houses with an average 

 of 4.6 persons per household. All but 22, or 4.1 

 percent, of the houses were owned by the persons 

 living in them.^^ 



In the Federal census of 1890, there were listed 

 for the community 2,202 persons, distributed 

 as follows : 



Masc. Fern. Total Pet. 



Whites 293 269 562 25.5 



Blacks 317 260 577 26.2 



Cabodos'- 161 165 326 14.8 



Mesli^os 342 395 737 33.5 



Total 1,113 1,089 2,202 100.0 



' The precise meaning of this term is not clear. It has been 

 used at different times in Brazil in four different ways : to refer 

 to (1) Indians in a tribal state, (2) assimilated or partially 

 assimilated Indians, (3) descendants of Indians, mixed in vary- 

 ing degrees with whites and (in certain areas) with Negroes and 

 (4) isolated, nonliterate rural inhabitants. 



In more recent years, a few persons born in 

 Europe have migrated to the community. Ac- 

 cording to the Federal census for 1920, of a total 

 population of 4,310, 101 persons, or 2.3 percent, 

 were born outside Brazil. Of these, 47 were Ital- 

 ian (35 males, 12 females) ; 27 were Portuguese 

 (21 males, 6 females) ; and 27 were Spanish (22 

 males, 5 females) . According to the State census 

 of 1934, taken 14 years later, 266 persons, or 7 per- 

 cent of the population, were foreign-born. Of 

 these, 64 were Spanish, 56 Italian, and 52 Portu- 

 guese. There were also 73 Japanese, 6 Syrians, 2 

 Germans, and 13 persons "of other nationalities." " 

 No comparable data are available from the 1940 

 census. 



A number of present-day residents are descended 

 from families which moved into the area two trt 

 three generations ago from a commimity about 25 

 miles to the south. Several families from another 

 community, about 40 miles to the east, are also 

 said to have moved into the area around 1916. 



A road linking the community with the coast by 

 way of Sao Paulo has existed since shortly after 

 the first settlement in the area. By the middle of 

 the eighteenth century, the town of Sao Paulo was 

 the hub of six different roads fanning out like the 

 spokes of a wheel. One of these passed near the 



"■The sex division was given as 1,175 men and boys and 

 1,290 women and girls. 



" At the present time, there arc no Syrians or Germans in 

 the community and only two families of Japanese. 



