On 8 May 1758, an alvará extended the 1755 laws on Indigenous freedom from Grão-Pará and Maranhão to the wider State of Brazil. The legal extension stated that Indigenous people were free subjects with property and commercial rights. The same reform era created administrative systems that restricted their autonomy and demanded labor. Laws cannot be read as proof that slavery or coercion ended: Indigenous communities faced continued illegal captivity, forced work, land seizure, and colonial tutelage. This measure belongs in a history of slavery because it shows the contested overlap between Indigenous enslavement and African slavery.
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What did the 8 May 1758 alvará extend?
The 1758 extension of the 1755 laws meant Indigenous coercion ended in practice.
Legal freedom coexisted with forced labor, land loss, and illegal captivity.