For many centuries, the Indigenous peoples of Brazil were used as a labor force by Portuguese colonizers and the Brazilian settlers who followed them. Although initially seen as an abundant, free, and easily subdued source of labor, the Indigenous peoples would gradually be replaced by African slaves because there were several obstacles that discouraged their enslavement. Nevertheless, despite such obstacles and successive laws that prohibited the use of Indigenous people as captives, Indigenous slavery persisted throughout the colonial period and would only be definitively abolished after Brazil’s independence. Even then, the condition of these traditional peoples remained quite precarious for a long time, and their rights would only gain prominence with the promulgation of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988.
The motives for enslaving the Indigenous peoples
When the Portuguese arrived in the territory that would later be called Brazil, they encountered populations with their own social, cultural, and linguistic systems. Initially, contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples was relatively benign. The Indigenous people cut Brazilwood logs and carried them to the coast, where they traded them for knives, pocketknives, mirrors, pieces of cloth, and other items with the Portuguese settled in trading posts. Historian Ciro Flamarion Cardoso notes that, at that time, the use of Indigenous labor was only sporadic, and slavery was not yet institutionalized. However, this changed with the beginning of permanent colonization in Brazil and the development of agriculture in the region, through the establishment of sugar mills in the Northeast.
The sugar economy required a large labor force, and the first solution adopted was the enslavement of Indigenous peoples, for several reasons:
- They were abundant: It is estimated that there were millions of Indigenous people in Brazil in 1500, when the region was discovered by the Portuguese. They could be exploited at no cost, generating immense profits for slave owners. At the time, Indigenous people were considered wealth comparable to gold, being called “red gold” by Jesuit priest Antônio Vieira. Centuries later, that expression would be used as the title of a book by historian John Remming, Red Gold.
- They were seen in a demeaning way: Since the arrival of Amerigo Vespucci in the Americas, derogatory reports about Indigenous peoples circulated in Europe. These accounts described them as “savages” who were far removed from European values, as they practiced nudity, polygamy, tribal warfare, and anthropophagy (ritual cannibalism). Furthermore, as a famous phrase by Pero de Magalhães Gândavo stated, it was believed that Indigenous people had neither faith, nor law, nor king—not to mention the fact that they did not organize themselves into private properties or use paper currency in economic transactions. These descriptions were used to justify the supposed inferiority of Indigenous peoples and to argue that they could be enslaved.
- They were victims of intertribal wars: Enslavement was often facilitated by conflicts among Indigenous tribes themselves. Tribes allied with the Portuguese would wage war against rival tribes, and the prisoners of war would be handed over to the colonizers as captives. From the Portuguese perspective, enslaving these prisoners was a way of saving them, because otherwise, they would likely be killed by their captors through ritual cannibalism.
The obstacles to Indigenous enslavement
Despite the economic interest in subjugating Indigenous labor, this project faced significant obstacles. The colonizers themselves soon identified various practical and moral problems they would have to contend with:
- Demographic issue: Although there was a large Indigenous population in 1500, contact with Europeans caused a drastic population decline. A key factor was the outbreak of diseases previously unknown to the natives. Epidemics of chickenpox, whooping cough, diphtheria, influenza, bubonic plague, measles, typhus, and smallpox devastated entire villages. Additionally, forced labor on plantations and intertribal wars also caused many deaths. Over time, these factors reduced the number of Indigenous people available for enslavement.
- Cultural issue: The Indigenous peoples were not accustomed to European-style agricultural labor. Their production was aimed at subsistence, conducted collectively and with low intensity and productivity. In contrast, the operation of plantation mills required continuous and disciplined labor on large tracts of land. The Indigenous peoples’ unsuitability for commercial agriculture led to them being labeled as “lazy” or “inept,” since they were unable to perform as the colonizers wanted.
- Defensive issue: Throughout the colonial period, Indigenous peoples did not remain passive in the face of enslavement. They resisted through escapes or rebellions. One specific form of resistance was the formation of so-called “santidades,” religious and messianic movements that combined Indigenous and Christian elements. The most well-known of these was the Santidade de Jaguaripe, in Bahia, at the end of the 16th century. Led by a prophet who preached the end of slavery and white domination, it managed to gather thousands of rebellious Indigenous and African people. However, it was suppressed and completely wiped out around 1613. From then on, there would be practically no other “santidades” in Colonial Brazil, although Indigenous resistance persisted in other forms.
- Religious issue: Indigenous peoples were considered subjects of the Portuguese Crown and deserving of protection by the Catholic Church, provided they converted to Christianity. According to the doctrine of “just war,” only those Indigenous people considered “rebellious”—that is, those who resisted evangelization, attacked European settlers, or engaged in acts deemed barbaric, such as cannibalism—could be enslaved. Based on this understanding, many Jesuits began to oppose Indigenous enslavement and the abuses committed under the pretext of “just wars.”
In 1549, the Jesuits arrived in Brazil, on a mission led by Manoel da Nóbrega. From that point on, the catechism of Indigenous peoples and the organization of settlements intensified—places where the natives lived under strict control by priests and learned the Catholic faith. Although they ceased to be formally enslaved, they were subjected to a disciplined regime of labor and evangelization. This became especially clear, for example, in the Amazon region, where the religious orders took advantage of the labor in the settlements to exploit the so-called “backland drugs”—the spices extracted from the forest.
The Jesuits became large landowners and justified the use of Indigenous labor by claiming it benefited the community and evangelization. In this way, the Jesuit action can be understood as having a dual effect: while protecting Indigenous people from enslavement by settlers, it also inserted them into systems of forced labor, concealed under a religious guise. This generated tensions with secular settlers, who saw the settlements as an obstacle to acquiring workers for their mills and farms. There were frequent bandeirante attacks on the settlements to capture Indigenous people, leading to direct confrontations with the Jesuits who defended them. This conflict of interests lasted for more than two centuries.
The laws against Indigenous enslavement
Due to the difficulties in subjugating the Indigenous peoples, a gradual transition to African enslavement was observed. However, it is important to emphasize that there was no immediate or complete replacement of Indigenous labor by African labor in Colonial Brazil. Both forms of forced labor coexisted for a long time in Portuguese America. In some regions and activities, especially in the interior and the Amazon, the use of Indigenous labor persisted until the mid-18th century, even though there were laws prohibiting it.
In 1570, King Dom Sebastião issued a Royal Charter that established the Law on the Freedom of the Gentiles. This legislation prohibited the enslavement of Indigenous peoples—whether they were allies of the Portuguese (“tame Indians”) or not (“wild Indians”). Under the terms of the law, the only permitted form of Indigenous enslavement was through a declaration of “just war” by the king or by a local governor acting under the monarch’s command. In other words, the only legally allowed Indigenous slaves would be those from tribes previously designated by the government as enemy tribes to be fought and subdued.
In 1595, King Philip II further restricted the possibility of Indigenous enslavement through another Royal Charter. From then on, the declaration of “just war” could only be made by the King of Portugal—not by the many local governors acting under his authority.
In 1684, the issue of Indigenous labor took a dramatic turn with the Beckman Revolt, in the Maranhão region. For slaveholders, there was little difference between employing Africans or Brazilian Indigenous people on farms. As a result, in a context of African scarcity in the region, many settlers decided to intensify Indigenous enslavement—which led to major clashes with the Jesuits. The settlers ended up rebelling against the Society of Jesus and against the Portuguese government itself, which they viewed as incapable of meeting the local demand for workers. Although the revolt was harshly suppressed, it was symptomatic of the clear opposition from the colonial elites to the policies of Portugal and the Catholic Church toward the Indigenous peoples—something that would persist into the future.
According to historians, the decisive moment against the enslavement of Indigenous people occurred during the reforms carried out by the Marquis of Pombal, under the reign of King Dom José I. Between 1750 and 1777, the Pombaline reforms, heavily influenced by the Enlightenment, promoted deep administrative and economic changes in Portugal and its colonies, with significant impacts on the native populations.
On one hand, Pombal acted to reduce the pressure to use Indigenous people as a labor force. He sponsored the creation of the Grão-Pará and Maranhão Trading Company and the Pernambuco and Paraíba Trading Company. These companies were responsible for trafficking African slaves and contributed to a significant increase in their numbers in Brazil. In the Maranhão region, for example, the enslaved Black population rose from 3,000 to 12,000 between 1755 and 1777. Thus, with more Africans on Brazilian soil, there would be less need to employ Indigenous people in agriculture.
On the other hand, Pombal also implemented concrete measures to curb forced Indigenous labor. In 1757, the Indian Directorate was promulgated, representing a new prohibition of Indigenous enslavement. This law abolished the religious orders’ guardianship over settled Indigenous people and made them, legally, free subjects of the Crown. Moreover, the law transformed the Jesuit settlements into villages to be administered directly by the Portuguese state, in a secular manner, and banned the use of the “general language”—a Tupi-inspired language created by the Jesuits to facilitate the catechism of the natives.
Initially, these provisions were applied only to the Grão-Pará and Maranhão region, in northeastern Brazil. The following year, however, they were extended to the entire territory of Portuguese America. Pombal’s goal was to integrate the Indigenous peoples into Brazilian society, not only by guaranteeing their freedom from the religious authorities, but also by promoting the use of Portuguese instead of the “general language,” in order to “Europeanize” the natives. This was part of the broader rupture between Pombal and the Society of Jesus, which culminated in the expulsion of the Jesuits from Brazil in 1759.
According to historian Ciro Flamarion Cardoso, even after the restrictive laws crafted by the Marquis of Pombal, Indigenous enslavement persisted in Portuguese America. In practice, many slave owners ignored royal orders, as they were located in areas far from direct government control. Furthermore, with the dismantling of the settlements, many Indigenous people were left without the protection of priests and soon found themselves in regimes analogous to slavery. Finally, successive Portuguese monarchs would once again declare “just war” against certain tribes—such as Dom João VI, who ordered the campaign against Indigenous peoples in the regions of Paraná, Minas Gerais, Goiás, and Pará.
The condition of Indigenous Brazilians remained severely degraded even after Brazil’s independence in 1822. Only in 1831 did the regency government—during the interregnum between the reigns of Dom Pedro I and Dom Pedro II—abolish Indigenous slavery and offensive warfare against them. From then on, Indigenous people came to be treated like orphans, as they were to be cared for by the government until they learned a trade and could integrate into society. During the Second Reign, Indigenous people transitioned from being enslaved to being glorified. The Romantic movement, particularly in poetry, idealized native peoples and alluded to the legacy they left to the country. Despite this, Indigenous Brazilians would continue to be marginalized for many decades, until the advent of the 1988 Constitution, which granted them a broad range of social rights—many of which have already been implemented, while others still need to be guaranteed by the government.
Conclusion
The trajectory of Indigenous slavery in Brazil reveals a reality marked by exploitation, resistance, and contradictions. Although the colonizers relied on economic, religious, and cultural arguments to justify enslavement, Indigenous peoples never passively accepted this condition, taking the lead in escapes, revolts, and political and spiritual organizing. The actions of the Jesuits, conflicts with settlers, and successive legal attempts to limit Indigenous slavery show how this practice generated constant tensions within the colonial system of Portuguese America. Even after the total abolition of this form of forced labor, Indigenous marginalization persisted, and only at the end of the 20th century did Indigenous peoples begin to have their rights formally recognized. Thus, even today, there remains a need for policies that protect Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and provide redress for the harm they have suffered.
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