COMERCIANTES DE ESCRAVOS EM PERNAMBUCO (c. 1660 – c. 1760): aproximação a um grupo mercantil colonial

In this article, we gathered data on 38 traders who worked in Recife between c. 1660 and c. 1760 and who participated in the trade of enslaved Africans. Of this set, we pay special attention to 15 merchants listed in a document made by the governor of the captaincy in 1758. We analysed the activities of the group members and their insertion in local society, to show that participation in the slave trade was one of the main elements of differentiation in the trajectory of a trader who reached the top of the mercantile hierarchy in colonial Recife. We collected the survey data from documents from the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo and various local archives in Recife.