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Ribeiro de Avellar Family Plantation Records
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
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Overview and metadata sections
The Ribeiro de Avellar family (also sometimes spelled Ribeiro de Avelar) was an aristocratic Portuguese family in Brazil that owned the Pau Grande plantation in the parish of Paty do Alferes, about sixty miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro. Antônio Ribeiro de Avellar and his brother Antônio dos Santos, José Rodrigues da Cruz founded the Pau Grande plantation in the 18th century. The lands were divided in 1797, and the portion belonging to Antônio Ribeiro de Avellar, who died in 1798, was later managed by his widow Antonia Maria da Conceição, alongside Luiz Gomes Ribeiro, his nephew and son-in-law who was connected to the family through his marriage to Joaquina Mathilde de Assumpção Avellar. Joaquim Ribeiro de Avellar (1791-1863), visconde de Ubá and barão de Capivay, was the son of Antônio Ribeiro de Avellar and Antonia Maria da Conceição; he assumed responsibility for the management of the plantation in the mid 19th century, with the assistance of Domingos Alves da Silva Porto, manager of Avellar & Companhia and commercial agent for the Ribeiro de Avellar family in Rio de Janeiro.
The Ribeiro de Avellar family (also sometimes spelled Ribeiro de Avelar) was an aristocratic Portuguese family in Brazil that owned the Pau Grande plantation in the parish of Paty do Alferes, about sixty miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro. Antônio Ribeiro de Avellar and his brother Antônio dos Santos, José Rodrigues da Cruz founded the Pau Grande plantation in the 18th century. The lands were divided in 1797, and the portion belonging to Antônio Ribeiro de Avellar, who died in 1798, was later managed by his widow Antonia Maria da Conceição, alongside Luiz Gomes Ribeiro, his nephew and son-in-law who was connected to the family through his marriage to Joaquina Mathilde de Assumpção Avellar. Joaquim Ribeiro de Avellar (1791-1863), visconde de Ubá and barão de Capivay, was the son of Antônio Ribeiro de Avellar and Antonia Maria da Conceição; he assumed responsibility for the management of the plantation in the mid 19th century, with the assistance of Domingos Alves da Silva Porto, manager of Avellar & Companhia and commercial agent for the Ribeiro de Avellar family in Rio de Janeiro.
Consists of family business records of the Ribeiro de Avellar family pertaining to their plantation (fazenda) Pau Grande and its manor house in the rural parish of Paty do Alferes, Brazil. The family operated the plantation using enslaved laborers and first focused solely on sugarcane production, but later expanded to grow coffee and other foodstuffs. The extracts from account books, correspondence, and receipts found in this collection provide a detailed financial account of the operations of a large colonial sugar and coffee plantation in Brazil in the 19th century.
There are two bound volumes containing transcribed excerpts of financial accounts documenting the plantation's finances spanning the period from 1797 to 1810. These excerpts were created by Luiz Gomes Ribeiro, then manager of the plantation following the death of its original owner, Antônio Ribeiro de Avellar in 1798. Luiz Gomes Ribeiro was required to report on his management of the plantation to his mother-in-law, Antonia Maria da Conceição. There are also later correspondence and receipts related to the management of the plantation in the mid 19th century under the control of Joaquim Ribeiro de Avellar (1791-1863), the son of Antônio Ribeiro de Avellar and Antonia Maria da Conceição. These later materials consist of 144 letters to Joaquim Ribeiro de Avellar written by Domingos Alves da Silva Porto, manager of Avellar & Companhia, an agricultural export business in Rio de Janeiro, along with receipts pertaining to expenses involved with running the plantation and selling its products.
Arranged by material type, then chronologically.
Biographical information was gathered from: Muaze, Mariana. As Memórias da Viscondessa: Família e Poder no Brasil Império. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Ed., 2008.
Purchased in 2018 by Princeton University Library and the Program in Latin American Studies in honor of of Barbara H. Stein, Princeton University's first bibliographer for Latin America, Spain and Portugal, and of Stanley J. Stein, the Walter Samuel Carpenter III Professor in Spanish Civilization and Culture, Emeritus (AM 2018-105).
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This collection was processed by Kelly Bolding in June 2018. Finding aid written by Kelly Bolding in June 2018.
No materials were removed from the collection during 2018 processing.
People
Subject
- Coffee plantations -- Brazil -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
- Plantation owners -- Brazil -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
- Slaveholders -- Brazil -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
- Slavery -- Brazil -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
- Sugar plantations -- Brazil -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Place
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Author
- Kelly Bolding
- Finding Aid Date
- 2018
- Access Restrictions
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Open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Collection Inventory
Two volumes ("Extracto de Caderno 1" and "Extracto de Caderno 2") containing extracts from account books made by the manager of Pau Grande.
Physical Description2 boxes
1 folder
1 box
Consists of 144 letters referring to the daily operations of Pau Grande, as well as political and economic matters in Rio de Janeiro.
Physical Description1 box
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
Consists of receipts forwarded by Domingos Alves da Silva Porto related to the accounts of Joaquim Ribeiro de Avellar, including lists of purchases and expenses related to Pau Grande.
Physical Description1 folder