This paper aims at approaching some aspects of compulsory labor, not slave labor, in the nineteenth century Minas Gerais. Through the analysis of the work of indigenous, recruits, free Africans and aggregates it intends to evidence the issue of vulnerability and instability to which some free poor men were submitted in the context of a markedly slavery region: Term of Mariana, County of Ouro Preto.
Minas Gerais; slavery; manumitted slaves; aggregates; free Africans