The Crown orders gold to pass through royal foundries

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 28 April 1688, the Crown partially revoked the 1680 prohibition and restored rules from 1655 that permitted Indigenous captivity under specified “rescue” and war conditions. The reversal followed...

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 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...

On 13 January 1750, Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Madrid, redrawing colonial boundaries in South America and assigning the Guarani mission territories of the Seven Peoples to Portugal. The...

On 14 October 1751, an alvará prohibited taking enslaved Africans to lands outside Portuguese dominion and regulated dispatches to Colônia do Sacramento and other frontier places. The measure...

On 6 June 1755, a royal law declared Indigenous people in Grão-Pará and Maranhão free, including their persons, property, and commerce. This was a major legal change after generations of Indigenous...