Ribeiro de Avellar Family Plantation Records, 1797-1858

Contents and Arrangement

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Collection Overview

Creator:

Avellar, Ribeiro de, Família and Avellar, Ribeiro de, Família

Title:

Ribeiro de Avellar Family Plantation Records

Repository:

Manuscripts Division

Permanent URL:

http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/ht24wp10b

Dates:

1797-1858

Size:

2 boxes

Storage Note:

Firestone Library (scamss): Boxes B-001197, P-000110

Language:

Portuguese

Abstract: Consists of plantation records of the Ribeiro de Avellar family documenting the accounts and operations of their sugar and coffee plantation Pau Grande in the parish of Paty do Alferes, Brazil. Materials include extracts from account books spanning from 1797 to 1810 and correspondence and receipts from the 1830s through the 1850s.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

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.

Arrangement

Arranged by material type, then chronologically.

Collection Creator Biography:

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.

Collection History

Acquisition:: 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).
Appraisal: No materials were removed from the collection during 2018 processing.
Processing Information: This collection was processed by Kelly Bolding in June 2018. Finding aid written by Kelly Bolding in June 2018.

Access & Use

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Open for research.

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