The Crown opens Brazilian ports to “friendly nations”

On 20 August 1798, two letters signed by “anonymous republicans” were found at Salvador’s Carmo religious complex. They urged a revolution and invoked equality, liberty, and popular fraternity....

On 27 August 1798, Joaquim José da Veiga, Joaquim José de Santana, and José Joaquim de Siqueira gave public denunciations identifying João de Deus do Nascimento and Lucas Dantas as conspirators. Their...

On 8 November 1799, colonial authorities hanged four participants in the Conjuração Baiana in Salvador: Lucas Dantas, Manuel Faustino, Luiz Gonzaga das Virgens, and João de Deus Nascimento. The...

A royal alvará reorganized mining administration and established mining boards to regulate the extraction economy. Gold and diamond production depended on enslaved labor, but African and...

A Hausa-led uprising was planned to begin on 28 May 1807 during Corpus Christi celebrations. Enslaved workers in Salvador and the Recôncavo built communication links, raised money for weapons, and...

The alvará of 1 April 1808 revoked the 1785 restrictions on factories and manufacturing in Brazil. It opened legal space for workshops and industry during the transfer of the Portuguese court to Rio...

On 26 December 1808, groups of enslaved people from Salvador and the Recôncavo left plantations and rural estates together, seeking refuge in the forests and quilombos. The collective escape...

On 6 January 1809, troops under Captain Joaquim José dos Passos blocked a group of fugitives near Paripe, outside Salvador. A large escape had expanded through the Recôncavo, and some 140 people...

On 19 February 1810, Portugal and Britain signed commercial and alliance agreements whose tenth article committed the Portuguese prince regent to cooperate toward the gradual abolition of the...

An alvará extended privileges to small mines and protected mines, equipment, and enslaved workers from seizure by creditors under specified circumstances. Its language shows how the state secured an...