A presença negra na Capitania do Rio Negro na Amazônia colonial

Abstract

This work studies the presence of people of African ancestry in the Captaincy of the Rio Negro during the eighteenth century, showing how these people were inserted in the colonial logic in the Amazon, identifying the relations between Indians, enslaved africans and colonizers. It also deals with the processes of resistance and adaptation of the people of African ancestry to the colonial hierarchical system in the Amazon, considering here the escapes to the borders with the Spanish dominions, the formation of mocambos, the alliances and loopholes forged within the colonial rules. For this purpose, primary sources were searched in the Overseas Historical Archive, travelers' reports and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database system. The challenge was to understand how the relation between black people, Indians and colonizers contributed for the formation of the colonial society of the Captainship of the Rio Negro. It was a long-lasting historical process in which blacks experienced an exploration and pressure, but reacted, found loopholes within the colonial system, and inserted themselves through resistance and adaptation to the society of the eighteenth-century Amazon.