Interprovincial Trafficking and Manumission on Large Estates in the term of Monte Alto, 19th Century

ABSTRACT The article analyzes articulations between masters and slaves in large properties of the Monte Alto term, in Alto Sertão da Bahia, during the 19th century. The vast lands that are conducive to the development of agriculture and livestock enabled diversified activities. The end of the Atlantic traffic (1850) and the intense interprovincial traffic in the region, from 1840 onwards, marked the lives of many captives, in the face of the threat of sales to the Southeast of the country, making the process of manumission difficult. Those properties had numerous slaves and a diversified economy, allowing the captives to weave with their masters possibilities of arrangements and negotiations for manumission. This study is linked to the Social History of Slavery, and focuses on the nominative connection, investigating inventories, note books and correspondence. A database allowed us to analyze the profile of these different social subjects and the degrees of articulations established between them.