Abstract
This study seeks to analyze the prerogative of correction and its developments in the legal universe of the Portuguese Old Regime based on the performance of the first royal magistrate (ouvidor) of the Judicial district (comarca) of Espírito Santo in Portuguese America, Pascoal Ferreira de Veras (1742-1745). By analyzing correction records from Vila de São Salvador, we will study the origins of the kingdom and the correctional practices in its conquests. We aim to observe how these daily actions represented one of the main ways of controlling people and managing the common good. For this, we will highlight the local conflicts intensified by the difficulties in demarcating the political territory in an area of conquest and with tenuous borders. In fact, in Paraíba do Sul, south of the comarca, such conflicts still involved the donatários from Casa dos Asseca and a fraction of the local elite interested in removing them from the control of the captaincy and subjection to the Portuguese crown. The local elite sought social prerogatives, direct political communication with the monarchy, and relief from tax taxation provided for by donated rule. Ferreira de Veras would face severe disputes related to these issues.
Keywords:
Correction; Royal Magistrates; Justice; Old Portuguese Regime; Comarca of Espírito Santo