Traficantes de escravizados no Maranhão (1811-1828): negócios, política e as guerras de Independência

Abstract

This work is dedicated to the study of the involvement of businessmen from the commercial square of São Luís in the slave trade during the first decades of the nineteenth century. I am particularly interested in understanding the monopoly of this trade by Portuguese merchants from Maranhão and, based on these traffickers, the influx of enslaved people into the province, focusing on the period between 1811-1828. Despite the structural constraints inherent to the captive market, the limitations imposed on this sector from the Treaty of 1815, and the political disputes that marked the post-Independence period in Maranhão, the traffickers analyzed here managed to remain active in one of the riskiest businesses of the nineteenth century, integrating the commercial square of São Luís into transatlantic mercantile circuits. The aim is to understand the role of these businessmen from Maranhão in the slave trade, the political and economic alliances established for this purpose, and the position occupied by the traffickers of the commercial square of São Luís in the configuration of the captive market.