STATE, TRANSPORT AND LABOR MARKET: FREE, FREEDMEN AND SLAVES IN PUBLIC CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN THE MINAS GERAIS PROVINCE IN THE 1830^s AND 1840^s

Abstract

During the 1830s and 1840s, the Minas Gerais Provincial Government invested directly in the construction of the Paraibuna Road. This road intervention required the hiring of skilled and unskilled workers. This study intends to explore the adjustment of free and freedmen workers, and the slave rental system. Emphasis is placed on the participation of skilled freedmen workers in the rental system and the negotiation for the contractual labor adjustment of a free carpenter master. Using primary sources' cross-referencing, we analyze the upward social mobility of a free mason master. The research identifies three results: (I) a social work organization characterized by intermittent work; (II) the high gross rate of return obtained by the owners of rented slaves; (III) the accumulation of money-capital and the inversion in the importation of slaves from the transatlantic slave trade.

Keywords:
Workers; slavery; rental; slave trade; Brazil