Slavery, Freedom, and Intermediate Statuses in Macau: Arquivo Diocesano de Macau, Freguesia de São Lourenço, Batismos 1741-1776

This dataset is based on a unique and hitherto unstudied source, the over 200-folios of manuscript baptismal records from the Parish of St. Lawrence (Freguesia de São Lourenço) in Macau that cover the period 1741-1976. The records themselves are preserved in situ in the Diocesan Archive of Macau in a legible contemporary manuscript written in a number of hands in Portuguese with technical terms in Latin and were digitized by the Genealogical Society of Utah in the 1970s. The dataset focuses solely on the baptisms during first 35 years (1741-1776), and contains detailed information on those being baptized, including their names, age, status, parents and godparents. As such, it offers a unique window onto slavery and society in early modern Macau at a level of detail that exceeds every other contemporary source.

本数据集基于一份此前未被学界研究过的独特原始资料——澳门圣劳伦斯堂区（Freguesia de São Lourenço）所藏的200余叶洗礼记录手稿，时间覆盖1741年至1976年。这批手稿现保存于澳门教区档案馆，由多名抄写员以葡萄牙语书写，字迹清晰可辨，文本中夹杂拉丁语专业术语，并于20世纪70年代由犹他家谱学会（Genealogical Society of Utah）完成数字化。本数据集仅聚焦于该时段的前35年（1741年至1776年）的洗礼记录，包含受洗者的姓名、年龄、社会身份、父母及教父母等详细信息。正因如此，本数据集为近代早期澳门的奴隶制与社会生态提供了独一无二的观察视角，其细节详实程度远超所有同期现存史料。