Aims and objectives
This project will digitise criminal and notarial documents in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil. The documents come from the semi-arid hinterlands (Portalegre, Santana do Matos and Assu), one of the poorest regions of Brazil. They date from the mid-19th to 20th centuries. The project will contribute approximately 150 records to the Judicial Sources, around 10,000 images of criminal and civil lawsuits, land lawsuits, inventories and wills. Some files include maps with cadastral information. These records are essential for studying slavery, enslaved Africans, Indigenous populations, racial mixing and land distribution in the Brazilian Northeast.
The original material is mainly in manuscript form in folders, with some sewed together. They are not housed in official archives but active court facilities lacking the care of dedicated archivists or curators. The documents themselves are disorganised, unaccounted for and exposed to the elements. In some cases, they have been separated from their original volume and are stored as loose, easily misplaced files. The materials from Portalegre and Santana dos Matos are stored in a deposit, intermixed with other items, including judicial seizures. Humidity, pests and neglect threaten their preservation. If an entire box of documents were to disappear, no one would notice.
