Some of the most important sources for analyzing nineteenth-century Brazilian social history are the 1830s regional manuscript censuses. Created by local justices-of-the-peace by request of the provincial governments, these documents recreate households by parish, identifying the name, relationship to the head of household, race, age, marital status, civil status (free, freed, or slave), place of birth, and occupation of all the individuals united in a fogo, literarily hearth, or household. They are a goldmine for any researcher, allowing analysis of economic orientation, the distribution of slave and free labor, spouse selection, patterns of maternity the possibilities are endless.
Share
