Boom and stagnation: a century of slavery in Curitiba (1765-1862)

• Main Author: Carlos Alberto Medeiros Lima
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) 2021-02-01
• Series: Revista Mundos do Trabalho
• Subjects: slavery; agrarian frontier; slave labor; curitiba
• Online Access: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/mundosdotrabalho/article/view/76398/45451

In this article an attempt is made to use burial records to describe some basic characteristics of the slave population of Curitiba, studying also the economic activities to which the slaves’ work was directed. Two distinct situations were detected: a boom occurred during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and it was followed by a long stagnation beginning in the 1800s. Burial records also show that sex imbalances were relatively frequent in local slave population, that slave families became less visible and important along the century studied, and that slave holdings declined consistently in size and relevance.