The sugar cane planters of São Sebastião

Abstract

It is well-known that the planters that grew sugar cane without owning mills (the "Labrados") were important in Colonial Brazil as a whole, but not in the state of São Paulo. However this paper shows that their presence was very significant in the county of São Sebastião, in that state, where a relative boom -- based in plantation of sugar cane -- occurred between 1780 and 1830, approximately. This paper puts forward that the relatively high increase in the demand of sugar in that period may have led the most wealthy farmers to concentrate their means in building mills, so they needed to complement their labour with the work of free men and their slaves when they owned some.