Nos mares de terras: o bando dos conquistadores e a dinâmica social na povoação do Piancó, Capitania da Paraíba do Norte (c. 1700 – c. 1760).

Abstract

This paper analyzes the formation of social groups and the exercises of the political and administrative dynamics of the newly conquered hinterlands of North Paraiba in the eighteenth century. With the acting of Lusitanian sesmeiros, a new socio-political organization based on the Portugal’s Ancien Régime was incorporated into the hinterlands. From 1711 with the performance of an ordinary judge of the riversides of Piranhas and Piancó, it becomes possible to understand how this space was defined by holders of the top military positions and the civil administration, linked to the homens bons (principal people) of Cidade da Paraíba. It is essential to understand the relation created between center and periphery, it is, the Portuguese crown, by the royal officers of the captaincy, and their hinterlands. Counting with the spaces of autonomia de ação, personal relations between explorers and the government were based on negotiation, reciprocity and links with the Municipal Councils, with the aim of legitimizing a nobiliary ethos for the hinterland conquerors group, components of the local elite. Especially through the Livro de Notas (Notarial Record Book) produced by the notary of the Povoação do Piancó and official correspondence of the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, we see the creation of a política do bem comum that allowed its members to remain in the center of local power and have access to the privileges their positions in the administration and governance could offer.