The Urban Slave Labor Force

In 1749, Tome Gomes Moreira, member of the Portuguese Overseas Council, presented to his fellow councilors a detailed report on the inadequacies and evils of the capitacao. Calculated on the basis of the number of working-age slaves owned by each tax payer, this per capita tax, as Moreira explained, was based on the erroneous assumption that “all slaves, of one or other sex, that live in Minas Gerais currently engage in mining activities.”1 Notwithstanding the fact that mining entrepreneurs did represent ownership of a large portion of the region’s slaves, persons involved in other sectors of the local economy also held slaves who were employed in a wide range of activities. Moreira argued that, because these slaves did not collect gold, their owners should be exempt from the capitacao. Moreover, because farmers, merchants, and tradesmen were liable to pay taxes associated with their occupations, he found it unjust to subject them to yet another form of taxation because they relied on the labor of slaves. Finally, by demanding payment from families of lesser means, whose well-being depended on the income generated by their slaves through hired work, frequently in non-mining activities, the crown was contributing to increasing poverty in the region. Among the various activities performed by slaves in Minas Gerais that Tome Gomes Moreira listed in his report were farming, mechanical trades, domestic work, sugar manufacturing, and marketing activities.