Elites coloniales y sus esclavos armados: política, clientela y autogobierno doméstico en Minas en el siglo XVIII

Abstract

The article aims to analyse the actions of elite groups in the Vila Rica district of the Minas Gerais captaincy in the first half of the eighteenth century, in terms of their household administration, understood here in a broad sense. Particular attention is paid to the relationships between these individuals and subordinate groups, notably slaves, in a vertical clientelist sense. Two methodological strategies were used in the research. The first was an exhaustive study of available parish records (births, baptisms and deaths), seeking to establish any possible connections and sociability networks among members of the elite and slaves. The other technique used to unveil these vertical relations was the recovery of more dispersed evidence from miscellaneous documents regarding the Minas Gerais captaincy in the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino.