ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, sugarcane plantations were established in Pernambuco’s and Paraiba’s Zona da Mata, in Bahia’s Reconcavo, and in the area surrounding the city of Rio de Janeiro. For two centuries, both areas exhibited common characteristics that distinguished them from the flourishing plantation centers. The patriarchal tendency was triply conditioned: by the slaveholding relations themselves, by the natural economy, and by the uncultivated lands latifundia. Identifying the two functions of slave plantations – mercantile and domestic – is nothing new. The relationship between the two traits varied depending on factors such as the rhythm of changes in market conditions, the availability of land, the evolution of production techniques, the degree to which the master was present or absent, the demographic relationship between enslaved people and free laborers, changes in the country’s political situation and international influences, etc.
