Difficulties of Legal Implementation of Sesmarias in Colonial Brazil: The Gap Between Law and Practice

Carmen Alveal

This paper deals with land conflict over land and power in 18th century Brazil. The demands for land were not limited to a desire for enhanced material living standards.  They were also part and parcel of the promotion of political and social interests.  In this drive for power, it was relatively common for proprietary rights to be merely asserted or usurped without any legal basis or formal application having been made. Broadly speaking, recourse was had to all available legal, official and unofficial means, including representations to higher authorities and strategic alliances with other settlers.  Two conflicts are analyzed when the major agents of the conflict were ordinary people themselves against two powerful families, indicating that the struggle for land was not only regarding survival, but also an attempt to guarantee political, economical and social power. Petitions and lawsuit over possession of land reveals an struggle for power in the interior of Brazil. For the purpose of the research, the sources used were petitions and the judicial litigations judged at the Appeal Court of the Tribunal da Relação, kept at the Overseas Council  Archive.

[WP #1003]