Slave baptisms and the reproduction of slavery (Bage, 19th century)

For a long time, the historiography has argued, diachronically, that the reproduction of slavery in Brazil depended almost exclusively on the transatlantic slave trade. Studying the case of the Province of Minas Gerais, however, helped researchers to challenge this view and the question of endogenous reproduction gained greater relevance in the debates. In dialogue with this problem, this article aims to ascertain the importance of the natural reproduction of enslaved people in the Empire's southern most Province of Rio Grande do Sul. By analyzing four decades of Catholic baptismal records, I show thatin the nineteenth century,in addition to the Atlantic trade, the reproduction of slavery crucially depended on the birth of slaves in Brazilian territory.