Vassal Indians versus relaxed Portuguese - freedom, land and work in the indigenous village of Benavente (Captaincy of Espírito Santo, 1795)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-9222.2014v6n12p317Keywords:
Territorial encroachments, Indigenous labour exploitation, Judicial processAbstract
A petition led by several Indians from the village of Nova Benavente and addressed to Queen Maria I in 1795. It denounces land theft and improper procedures for extracting indigenous labor in the region. In order to have their pleas heard, the Indians began a true epic, in which two Indian attorneys went to Bahia and then to Lisbon. In court, the queen accepted the complaints and ordered that the facts be investigated and that “justice be distributed” to the Indians in whatever was appropriate. As a result, a lawsuit was filed in the village of Benavente and, among the many documents attached to the lawsuit, the petition transcribed and commented on in the text is found. Currently, the set of documents is gathered in a single file deposited in the Overseas Historical Archives, in Lisbon.
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