Slavery, Conflicts, and Archaeology in Eighteenth-Century Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

This chapter intends to display some situations where archaeological remains and iconographic records may highlight the kinds of conflict that were part of the dynamics within the slave society in colonial Brazil, particularly in the region of Minas Gerais (translated General Mines, currently a state in Brazil), over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We are going to stress some circumstances which, from the slave traffic and going through the slave labor on mining activities and farms, show the role of the Catholic Church as a relevant actor to the maintenance of slavery and the role of the quilombos as one of the most comprehensive forms of antislavery reaction by the slaves themselves. Considering these different contexts in which the slaves were a part of, this chapter shows the great variety of conflicts that developed within the slavery society. In this perspective, this chapter highlights the potentialities of archaeology as an alternative source to analyze the remains left in different contexts and produce information that contribute to its comprehension. It is with this approach turned in this direction that the present study is made.