Rice growing, work and indigenous protagonism in the Captaincy of Maranhão (1770-1780)

Abstract

This article seeks to show the participation of the village of Vinhais in the colonial economy of Maranhão through the trade and export of rice to Europe during the seventies of the 18th century. Through the experience of the Indian village of Vinhais, we present some aspects about indigenous work in the captaincy of Maranhão, during the socioeconomic changes arising from the Pombaline Reforms and the Directory of Indians. Through critical analysis, supported by the New Indigenous History, its central motto is the transcription of the documentation present in the Book of Minutes and Judgments of the village of Vinhais. We intend to review historical approaches based on traditional perspectives, which continue to put the importance of indigenous people in the colonial economy in perspective. Therefore, bringing the experience of the Vinhais Indian village, should generate more interpretive elements and create the possibility of exposing this sector of colonial society as agents of the socioeconomic processes that took place in the captaincy of Maranhão during the Pombaline consulate.