Black townsmen: A comparative study of persons of African origin and descent in slavery and freedom in Baltimore, Maryland, and Sabara, Minas Gerais, 1750--1810 (Brazil)

This dissertation discusses the presence of persons of African origin and descent, their activities, and their experiences with slavery and freedom in the towns of Baltimore, Maryland, and Sabará, Minas Gerais (Brazil). It is based on the careful examination of a variety of primary sources that include population maps and tax lists, probate records, sale and manumission deeds, administrative and church records, newspapers, and account books. The dissertation engages a historiography that has focused too frequently on the permeable and accommodating nature of urban environments to explain why some individuals successfully overcame slavery and become free. It proposes that the very effort persons of African origin and descent made to improve their situation were at the root of the development of this “urban nature.” The comparative approach adopted by this study is intended to show more clearly this point. Because it is possible to observe similar modes of economic and social insertion among persons of African origin and descent in Baltimore and Sabará despite distinctions in these urban backgrounds, it is necessary to look beyond the uniqueness of these environments to understand how this group experienced life in each town. Consequently, the comparison brings to the fore these individuals' own efforts to secure greater control over their reality, mostly by reclaiming control over their labor, and, in this manner, gain access to levers with which they could raise their standing in society. The dissertation concludes that by constantly seeking to participate in the economic and social environments of these towns in ways that would allow them to secure their survival and potentially improve their living conditions and that of their families, persons of African origin and descent developed the means to orchestrate the transition from slavery to freedom. In their effort to do so, this population continuously affected the reality around them. Like other townsmen and women who, through their choices and decisions concerning the way they lived their lives, traced the trajectories of these two urban environments, persons of African origin and descent also had a part in shaping the “nature” of Baltimore and Sabará.