[Brazil]: Mendoça Furtado, Francisco Xavier de:

$3,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

DIRECTORIO, QUE SE DEVE OBSERVAR NAS POVOAC OENS DOS INDIOS DO PARA , E MARANHA O, EM QUANTO SUA MGESTADE NAO MANDAR O CONTRATIO. A scarce and monumentally important law in the history of the indigenous peoples of Brazil. Far more than a simple reorganization of government and a step towards Jesuit expulsion, this remarkable document prescribes the entire worldview of the Portuguese crown regarding the newly free indigenous population in its colonies, enumerating ninety-five articles which direct how they should live and work, down to the most minute details of daily life. This decree, following the June 6 decree which abolished the slavery of native Brazilians, was approved by King José I on August 7, 1755. One piece in Marquis de Pombal's sweeping reforms, Pombal's policy towards the American Indian was one of full integration with White society. The goal of this policy in Brazil was threefold—to curb the influence of the Jesuit order, to encourage the "civilization" of indigenous settlements (and therefore their commercial and agricultural productivity), and finally, to draw a clear line between natives, now free and theoretically equal to Portuguese citizens, and imported African slaves, who would be the key to exploiting the New World's immense natural resources.This decree, initially confined to Pará e Maranhão but soon extended to all of Brazil, presents a complex and contradictory view of its newly free people subjects. The first article insists that a Portuguese Dire

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