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.