Maranhão Inventories Slave Database

The Maranhão Inventories Slave Database (MISD) contains extracted information about the lives of 8,188 enslaved Africans and their descendants in Maranhão, Brazil from the mid-eighteenth century through the early nineteenth century. The dataset contains 21 variables. MISD data were produced between 1767 and 1831 and have been extracted from inventories of property owners’ possessions that are housed today in the Arquivo Judiciário do Estado do Maranhāo in São Luís, Brazil. When a property owner in the territory died, a representative of the state tallied the deceased’s possessions—including slave property. Inventory takers wrote down extensive information about the enslaved, such as given names, approximate age, marriage partner, children, profession or skills, monetary values, and “defects” such as injuries and illnesses. Enslaved people’s original (African) names were not recorded, since the enslaved in Brazil were baptized and given new names. Inventory takers also asked the enslaved from what “nation” (nação) they hailed.