On 7 June 1755, a royal charter confirmed the Companhia Geral do Grão-Pará e Maranhão. The company received commercial privileges as the Crown sought to draw the northern region more tightly into Atlantic trade. Historian Alexandre Pelegrino shows how the reforms paired Indigenous freedom laws with a state-backed push to import enslaved Africans for cotton and rice production. The result was not emancipation from labor exploitation: Indigenous labor remained coerced in many settings while African enslavement expanded. The company’s charter shows imperial policy actively reshaping the racial composition and commercial organization of forced labor.
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What did the 7 June 1755 charter establish?
The 1755 northern trading company was designed to end the Atlantic slave trade.
It supported imperial commerce, including importation of enslaved Africans.