Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upOur lens: how we read itNext dig: help us find it
Year: 1757 · Places: South America, Africa
The case
Our case: in 1757 the Crown of Portugal had to pass a law ordering its officials in the Amazon to stop calling the Indians Negros. You only outlaw a word that everybody is using. In Brazil, Indian and Negro were the same word on paper.
What this case proves for us
Point 3: We were renamed on paper. The colonizer's own law admits Native people were written down as Negros, often enough that the king had to forbid it.
Point 1: We are of this land. The people of this land were called negros da terra, negroes of the land, in the 1500s. The word was put on us here, not carried from Africa.
Background
The Diretório dos Índios was a royal law for the Indian villages of Pará and Maranhão, in the Amazon. It was issued on May 3, 1757 and confirmed in 1758. Historian Stuart B. Schwartz has shown that in the 1500s Native people in Brazil were classed as negros da terra.
Our evidence
Exhibit A · Record: The law, § 10"Não consentirão os Diretores daqui por diante, que pessoa alguma chame Negros aos Índios": from now on the Directors will not allow anyone to call the Indians Negros. The same paragraph tells the directors to stop the Indians using that name among themselves.
Exhibit B · Record: The Crown's own word for itA royal order speaks of "the unjustifiable and scandalous practice of calling them negroes" (Forbes 1984, citing Russell-Wood).
Exhibit C · Record: Negroes of the landSchwartz (Afro-Ásia 29/30, 2003): in the 1500s "classificavam-se como 'negros da terra' os indígenas," a status "mais ou menos equivalente ao dos 'negros da Guiné'."
Exhibit D · Pattern: A law against a wordThe Crown had to order its own officials to stop writing Native people as Negros. That proves the practice.
Exhibit E · Our lens: Our lensTheir own king admits it: in Brazil, Indian and Negro were the same word until a law pulled them apart.
The colonizer lens
Negro always meant African; Native people were a separate race from the start.
Who says it: The usual telling of colonial race in the Americas.
What it covers: That the Crown itself had to ban the practice of calling Indians Negros.
Cross-examination
If Negro only ever meant African, why did the king of Portugal need a law to stop his officials calling Indians Negros?
What were Native people called on paper before 1757, and how many records still say it?
Verdict: we won
We won on the king's own law. In Brazil the colonizer wrote Native people as Negros so often that the Crown had to forbid it in 1757.
How we won
The law: § 10 of the Diretório bans calling the Indians Negros.
The admission: the Crown calls the practice scandalous, so it was common.
The older name: negros da terra, negroes of the land, for Native people in the 1500s.
Our next dig: Baptism, sale and census records that call Native people negros da terra (Brazilian parish registers; Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino). Found something? Help us dig.
Where this gets us
Level 1: Awakening. The colonizer's own law that Indian and Negro were one word on paper.
To reach level 2, Paperwork, we still need:
The parish and sale records that call Native people negros da terra, counted.
The same story in Spanish and English records, side by side (P924, P922).
Families in Brazil today whose papers say negro, traced back.
The original card
SUMMARY1757: Brazil's Crown bans calling Indians "Negros" (Nov 13, 2026; Witness Index and dossier 14)
RECORDthe Diretório dos Índios (Pará and Maranhão, May 3, 1757; confirmed 1758), § 10: "Não consentirão os Diretores daqui por diante, que pessoa alguma chame Negros aos Índios" (from now on the Directors will not allow anyone to call the Indians Negros). The same paragraph tells the directors to stop the Indians from using that name among themselves. Forbes (1984), citing Russell-Wood, gives a royal order against "the unjustifiable and scandalous practice of calling them negroes."
RECORDStuart B. Schwartz, Afro-Ásia 29/30 (2003): in the 1500s "classificavam-se como 'negros da terra' os indígenas" (Native people were classed as "negros da terra," negroes of the land), a status "mais ou menos equivalente ao dos 'negros da Guiné'" (more or less equal to that of the negroes of Guinea)
PATTERNa law against a word proves the word was in common use: the Crown had to order its own officials to stop writing Native people as Negros
LENS (WW9)their own king admits it: in Brazil, Indian and Negro were the same word until a law pulled them apart
OPENhow many baptism, sale and census records call Native people "negros da terra": needs deep research (Brazilian parish registers; Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino)