Slavery, dynamics of miscegenation, and mobility in a society in formation: Vila Rica de Ouro Preto at the dawn of its foundation (ca. 1710-1730)

ABSTRACT This study explores how the formation and characteristics of the sociodemographic structure of Vila Rica during the first third of the 18th century, marked by profound imbalances and the zenith of gold mining, fostered a sufficiently flexible relational universe sufficiently flexible to allow a minority yet significant portion of the enslaved population, especially women and their children, to transition from slavery to freedom, rise socially and economically, and even become slave owners enslavers while still remaining enslavedslaves. To achieve this, we worked with an extensive and varied documentary corpus, analyzing baptisms, marriages, and burials from the two parishes, post-mortem inventories from the Casa do Pilar, land tenure registers, or “termos de aforamentos,” and payment lists of the Real Donativo from the Public Archive of Minas GeraisArquivo Público Mineiro. The systematic cross-referencing of these various sources has enabled the reconstruction of multiple individual and family trajectories, integrating them into the framework of a social reality characterized by the development of urban slavery, the scarce presence of women of Portuguese origin, the prevalence of non-sacramentalized families typologies, the dynamics of miscegenation, and socioeconomic mobility.