The 1680 ban is partly reversed, reopening Indigenous enslavement

A Dutch military expedition entered Palmares in March 1645. A chapter built around the dated report of 21 March follows the killing of an unnamed Palmarista woman by a Dutch bugler. The surviving...

On 10 March 1649, João IV established the Companhia Geral do Comércio do Brasil by royal charter. It organized protected commerce and shipping between Portugal and Brazil and served military aims...

On 26 January 1654, Dutch authorities signed the capitulation ending their control of Recife and surrounding territories. The transfer changed the European power governing a major sugar-producing...

On 9 April 1655, the Crown issued a law governing Indigenous “rescue” and labor in Maranhão. It retained categories through which captives could be transferred into colonial service, despite earlier...

On 1 April 1680, a royal law prohibited the captivity of Indigenous people in the State of Maranhão, including cases previously treated as exceptions. It ordered officials to free people held...

On 6 February 1694, artillery and a large colonial force breached the Cerca Real dos Macacos, Palmares’s principal fortified settlement. The attack destroyed a major center, killed and captured...

On 20 November 1695, Zumbi was located and killed by colonial forces after continuing resistance following the fall of Macaco. The date and details come largely through colonial reports, which...

On 11 February 1719, a royal law ordered new foundry houses in the mining districts, required gold to be cast and stamped there, and replaced an annual quota with the fifth (one fifth) levied on gold....

On 29 June 1720, the Vila Rica revolt began when insurgents attacked the home of royal ombudsman Martinho Vieira de Freitas and destroyed papers. The rebellion protested the accelerated installation...

On 3 March 1741, Portugal issued an alvará ordering that Black people found living in quilombos be branded with an “F”; if already branded, an ear was to be cut off. The language reveals a state...