Poder executivo colonial

Item

Country

BR

Name of institution (English)

Public Archive of the State of Bahia

Name of institution (official language of the state)

Language of name of institution

por

Contact information: postal address

Ladeira de Quintas 50, Baixa de Quintas 40320-140

Contact information: phone number

0055 713116-2165

Contact information: web address

Contact information: email

apeb.fpc@fpc.ba.gov.br

Title (English)

Colonial executive power

Title (official language of the state)

Poder executivo colonial

Language of title

por

Creator / accumulator

Colonial government in Brazil

Date(s)

1548/1851

Language(s)

por

Extent

783 storage units

Type of material

Textual Material

Scope and content

The Poder executivo colonial (colonial executive power) collection comprises documentation related to the colonial rule of Brazil. It contains royal decrees and orders, documentation related to the exercised authority of officials appointed by the king and correspondence sent from colonial and local authorities, including institutions in Lisbon and officials in the Bahia region, as well as other parts of Brazil. It also includes six books related to passports, two regarding enslaved people.
Some of the documentation relates to New Christians in Brazil, including the following examples:
248, Livro de registros de pedidos de passaportes para escravos e de guias para despachos de embarcações (Book of registers of passport requests for slaves and guides for shipments) (1718-29), maço 248, May 22, 1719: contains records on Maria Bernar de Miranda, a New-Christian slave-trader active on the route from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro. She was the daughter of a doctor from Bahia who became a slave trader. She had the support of her sister, Ana Bernal, who was married to Joseph da Costa, also a slave trader.
Patentes, no. 11, fol. 6v: a document of appointment of Gaspar Rodrigues dos Reis Calçado to the office of Captain of the Ordenança da Vila de Santa Cruz de Aracati (Ordnance infantry of the Vila de Santa Cruz de Aracati). Calçado was the descendent of New Christians, the son of Manoel Rodrigues Correa and Izabel Dias de Almeida, born in the city of Vimioso, Portugal. He had been appointed tesoureiro geral dos defuntos e ausentes, capelas e resíduos in Angola on August 6, 1750. Later, he resigned the office on behalf of José Vieira de Araújo.

Archival history

The Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (Public Archive of the State of Bahia) is considered the second most important public state archive in Brazil. It holds an invaluable archival collection, produced and accumulated over 214 years, from 1549 to 1763, during which the city of Salvador was the seat of the colonial government in Brazil.
As an archive, it was formally constituted by an Act of the Governor of the State of Bahia, Manoel Victorino Pereira, on January 16, 1890, two months after the foundation of the Republican regime in Brazil. From then on, the archive became the guardian of Bahia's documentary heritage.
In 2002, the Public Archive was extinguished and became part of the Diretoria de Arquivos da Fundação Pedro Calmon (Directorate of Archives of the Pedro Calmon Foundation).

Administrative / Biographical history

In 1549, King João III of Portugal appointed a governor-general to Brazil, Tomé de Sousa, aiming to strengthen the authority of the Crown in Brazil. That same year, Tomé de Sousa took part in the foundation of Salvador da Bahia, which served as the capital of the Estado do Brazil (State of Brazil) for 214 years.
The Estado do Brasil underwent administrative restructurings several times. From 1621 to 1652 and from 1654 to 1772, the captaincies of Maranhão, Pará, and some smaller captaincies formed the Estado do Maranhão e Grão-Pará (State of Maranhão and Grão-Pará), being unified under the same government in Bahia outside these periods.
This administrative structure meant that, until 1808, the senior Crown representative in the colony was a governor-general, which had been elevated to the category of viceroy in 1720. Still, the capital city was transferred to Rio de Janeiro in 1763.
In 1807, the Portuguese Royal family moved to Brazil after Napoleon I invaded Portugal. The king of Portugal remained there until April 22, 1821, when he returned to Portugal, leaving his son Pedro (future Emperor of Brazil) as regent. On June 3, 1822, Pedro convoked a legislative and constituent assembly, and on September 7, he proclaimed the independence of Brazil, ending the colonial rule.
Sources:

Access points: locations

Access points: persons, families

Access points: subject terms

Access points: document types

System of arrangement

The collection is organised into types of documents. Series are organised chronologically.

Access, restrictions

The collection is microfilmed.

Links to finding aids

Author of the description

Kevin Soares, 2023

Bibliography

Item sets

Linked resources

Filter by property

is part (item) of
Title Alternate label Class
Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia Collections (official language of the state)