Minas Gerais

Abstract

The territory known as Minas Gerais (General Mines), roughly corresponding to the highlands of the southeastern region of present-day Brazil, was designated as a separate captaincy of Portuguese America in 1720, became a province in 1815, retained that status during the empire, and was redesignated as a state after the proclamation of the Republic in 1889—dates that roughly coincide with the limits of the overall period under consideration here (occasionally the region will be referred to as simply Minas and the adjective mineiro will be used as a qualifier). Gold strikes in the final years of the 17th century attracted ever larger waves of settlers from Portugal and other European countries and from other parts of Portuguese America, as well as attendant African slaves. A network of urban areas sprang up to house and service a burgeoning population and concentrated stately public and private buildings with their rich interiors. The slave society that emerged from a complex interdependence of mining, agricultural, craft, and service sectors was often considered unruly by colonial authorities, although current interpretations tend to emphasize the relative stability that marked everyday life in Minas, not least owing to a certain prosperity born of that diversity. While imports of African slaves into Minas were massive—perhaps the largest in all the Americas during most of the 18th century—it was the constant intermixing (mestiçagem) of individuals of diverse origins that most stands out in historical terms. By mid-century Minas boasted the largest population of Portuguese America, including the largest slave force, the highest number of Africans, and, above all, the largest population of mixed origin: slaves, freedpeople, and freeborn. Social organization, culture, the arts, and religious practices reflected those admixtures. By the last quarter of the 18th century, gold yields were in decline, but population growth continued and Minas had the largest provincial population when independence arrived in 1822—a situation that would not change until the second or third decade of the 20th century. Characterized by a sort of bucolic diversity during the 19th century, the region nevertheless remained linked to the Atlantic world through the slave trade and thanks to the emergence of coffee production, as well as through its role as the virtual breadbasket of dynamic southeastern Brazil. As the abolition of slavery loomed larger and larger on the horizon, the basic contours of Minas remained in place, but the glow of a diversified prosperity began to grow dimmer.