Les esclaves âgés de l’Ouest pauliste durant la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle : analyse comparée des contrats de vente (flux) et des inventaires après décès (stock)

Abstract

In traditional historiography, elderly slaves are generally portrayed as deadweight in the hands of owners who often resorted to manumission as a way of getting rid of the hassles they caused. Old slaves and manumission – this is the relationship commonly identified by scholars. Our objective is to present a different reality: of those who, despite their age, were sold and that of those who continued to live and work on plantations during the expansion of coffee production in São Paulo, especially Ribeirão Preto, during the second half of the 19th century. To compare what economists call the flow and stock of these elderly slaves, we rely on purchase and sale deeds, as well as post-mortem inventories.

Keywords

• slavery
• internal slave trade
• post-mortem inventories
• expansion of coffee production
• new west of São Paulo
• Brazil