Degredado
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''Degredado'' is the traditional
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
term for an exiled convict, especially between the 15th and 18th centuries. The term ''degredado'' (etymologically, a 'decreed one', from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
'' decretum'') is a traditional Portuguese legal term used to refer to anyone who was subject to legal restrictions on their movement, speech or labor. Exile is only one of several forms of legal impairment. But with the development of the Portuguese penal transportation system, the term ''degredado'' became synonymous with convict exiles, and exile itself referred to as ''degredo''.


Background

Most ''degredados'' were common criminals, although many were political or religious prisoners (e.g. 'backsliding'
New Christians New Christian ( es, Cristiano Nuevo; pt, Cristão-Novo; ca, Cristià Nou; lad, Christiano Muevo) was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction in the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire. The term was used from the 15th century ...
), who had been sentenced to be exiled from the Kingdom of Portugal. The sentence was not always direct - many had been given long sentences of imprisonment (sometimes death), but took the option to have their sentences commuted to a shorter period of exile overseas, in service of the crown. ''Degredados'' played an important role in the era of Portuguese discoveries and were of outsized importance in the establishment of Portuguese
colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...
overseas, particularly in
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. Eventually, most ''degredados'' would be dropped off at a colony or (especially in the early years) abandoned on an unfamiliar shore, where they would remain for the duration of their sentence. Many were given specific instructions on behalf of the crown, and if they fulfilled them well, might earn them commutation or pardon. Common instructions included helping establish staging posts and warehouses, serving as laborers in a new colony, or garrisoning a fledgling fort. ''Degradados'' abandoned on unfamiliar shores (known as ''
lançados The ''lançados'' (literally, ''the thrown out ones'' Pardue 2015: p. 42 or ''the cast out ones'') were settlers and adventurers of Portuguese origin in Senegambia, Cabo Verde, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and other areas on the coast of West Africa. Man ...
'', literally 'the launched ones') were often instructed to conduct exploratory work inland, searching for rumored cities, making contact with unknown peoples. Some ''degredados'' achieved a measure of fame as inland explorers, making their name almost as famous to posterity as that of the great discoverer captains themselves (e.g. António Fernandes). While many ''degredados'' performed well enough to have their sentences reduced or pardoned as a reward, probably as many just ignored the terms of their exile. Some jumped ship along the way, usually at a relatively safe port, rather than allowing themselves to be dropped off at some distant and dangerous shore. Others sneaked onto ships returning to Portugal (or some other European country) at their first chance. Some went off and formed 'outlaw' ''degredado'' colonies, away from the supervisory eye of crown officials. Others 'went native', building up a new life of their own among the local inhabitants, obliterating their past altogether (e.g. the 'Bachelor of Cananeia')


History

In the early years of Portuguese discoveries and empire-building in the 15th and 16th centuries, outbound ships usually carried a small number of ''degredados'', to assist in tasks deemed too hazardous or onerous for ordinary crewmen; e.g. upon reaching an unfamiliar shore, a ''degredado'' or two were usually landed first to test if the native inhabitants were hostile. After opening contact was made, ''degredados'' were often assigned to spend the nights in the native town or village (while the rest of the crew slept aboard ships), to build up trust and collect information. If relations turned hostile, it was ''degredados'' who were charged with the dangerous job of carrying negotiating terms between the ships and local rulers. In the 16th and 17th centuries, ''degredados'' formed a substantial portion of early colonists in
Portuguese empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...
. The Moroccan enclaves, the Atlantic islands,
Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe islands were a colony of the Portuguese Empire from its discovery in 1470 until 1975, when independence was granted by Portugal. History The Portuguese explorers João de Santarém and Pêro Escobar discovered the isla ...
and more distant African colonies such as
Portuguese Angola Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a territory under Portuguese rule in southwestern Africa. In the same context, it was known until 1951 as Portuguese West Africa (officially the State of West Africa). I ...
,
Benguela Benguela (; Umbundu: Luombaka) is a city in western Angola, capital of Benguela Province. Benguela is one of Angola's most populous cities with a population of 555,124 in the city and 561,775 in the municipality, at the 2014 census. History Por ...
and
Portuguese Mozambique Portuguese Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique) or Portuguese East Africa (''África Oriental Portuguesa'') were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colony. Portuguese Moz ...
, were built up and significantly (if not mostly) populated by ''degredados''. Many of the original Brazilian colonies were also founded with ''degradado'' colonists, e.g. Vasco Fernandes Coutinho carried some 70 ''degredados'' to found
Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...
in 1536; royal governor
Tomé de Sousa Tomé de Sousa (1503–1579) was the first governor-general of the Portuguese colony of Brazil from 1549 until 1553. He was a nobleman and soldier born in Rates, Póvoa de Varzim. Sousa was born a noble and participated in military expeditions in ...
carried an estimated 400-600 ''degredados'' to establish
Salvador Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music ** ''Salvador'' ( ...
, the original capital of
Portuguese Brazil Colonial Brazil ( pt, Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Duri ...
, in 1549.


Famous degredados

* João Nunes a
New Christian New Christian ( es, Cristiano Nuevo; pt, Cristão-Novo; ca, Cristià Nou; lad, Christiano Muevo) was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction in the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire. The term was used from the 15th century ...
''degredado'' taken by
Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...
on the first expedition to India. On account of his rudimentary knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic, Nunes was the first to go ashore in
Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...
, India, and it is Nunes (not Gama) who uttered the famous phrase "We came to seek Christians and spices". *
Luís de Moura Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
, a ''degredado'' taken by
Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral ( or ; born Pedro Álvares de Gouveia; c. 1467 or 1468 – c. 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. He was the first human in ...
on the second armada (1500). Dropped off in East Africa, Moura would serve for many years as the effective Portuguese
factor Factor, a Latin word meaning "who/which acts", may refer to: Commerce * Factor (agent), a person who acts for, notably a mercantile and colonial agent * Factor (Scotland), a person or firm managing a Scottish estate * Factors of production, suc ...
and representative to the Sultan of
Malindi Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census. It is the largest urban centre ...
, an important Portuguese ally in
East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...
. * António Fernandes - a sometime carpenter who had been exiled to
Sofala Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. It was founded by Somali merchants. This name wa ...
in either 1500 or 1505; Fernandes went on to conduct a series of overland exploration trips in 1512–1515, 300 miles deep into the lands of the Monomatapa and
Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi r ...
. * '
Bachelor of Cananeia A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...
' (''Bacherel de Cananéia''), a mysterious New Christian ''degredado'' known simply as 'the Bachelor'The 'Bachelor' is a reference to his erudition, an indicator of some likely formal education in his past. Later historians have variously hypothesized the Bachelor's real identity as Francisco Chaves, Duarte Peres or Cosme Fernandes Pessoa. Abandoned on the coast of southern Brazil in 1502, he went on to raise himself into a major chieftain of the Carijó Indians around Cananeia. In 1533, the 'Bachelor' famously led a raid to sack and destroy the Portuguese colony of São Vicente. *
João Ramalho João Ramalho () (1493–1582) was a Portuguese explorer and adventurer known as the first bandeirante. He lived much of his life among Tupiniquim natives in Brazil after he arrived there in 1515. He even became the leader of an Indian village ...
was either a ''degredado'' or a shipwrecked sailor (uncertain which), who was left in southern Brazil c. 1511. Ramalho established himself as a lesser chieftain among the
Tupiniquim Tupiniquim (also Tupinã-ki, Topinaquis, Tupinaquis, Tupinanquins, Tupiniquins) are an indigenous peoples of Brazil, indigenous people of Brazil, who now live in three Indigenous territory (Brazil), indigenous territories (''Terras Indígenas'' ...
of the Piratininga plateau. Unlike the hostile Bachelor, Ramalho helped the Portuguese establish themselves at São Vicente (1532) and later
São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
(c. 1550)


See also

*
Assimilados Assimilado is the term given to African subjects of the colonizing Portuguese Empire from the 1910s to the 1960s, who had reached a level of "civilization", according to Portuguese legal standards, that theoretically qualified them for full right ...
*
Lançados The ''lançados'' (literally, ''the thrown out ones'' Pardue 2015: p. 42 or ''the cast out ones'') were settlers and adventurers of Portuguese origin in Senegambia, Cabo Verde, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and other areas on the coast of West Africa. Many ...
*
Luso-Africans Luso-Africans are people of mixed Portuguese and African ancestry who speak Portuguese. The vast majority of Luso-Africans live in former Portuguese Africa, now referred to as ''Lusophone Africa'', comprising the modern countries of Angola, Guinea ...
*
Lusotropicalismo Lusotropicalism ( pt, Lusotropicalismo) is a term and "quasi-theory" developed by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre to describe the distinctive character of Portuguese imperialism overseas, proposing that the Portuguese were better coloniz ...
*
Mestiço Mestiço is a Portuguese term that referred to persons born from a couple in which one was an aboriginal person and the other a European. Mestiço community in Brazil in Colonial Brazil, it was initially used to refer to , persons born from ...
*
Órfãs do Rei The Órfãs do Rei (, ''orphans of the king'') were Portuguese girl orphans who were sent from Portugal to overseas colonies during the Portuguese Empire as part of Portugal's colonization efforts. The orphans were married to native rulers or Portu ...
*
Prazeros The Prazeiros were the Portuguese and Afro-Portuguese landowners who ruled, in a feudal-like manner, vast estates called '' prazos'' that were leased to them by the Portuguese Crown, in the Zambezi Valley from the sixteenth through to the eighteent ...
* Retornados *
Signare Signares were the Mulatto French-African women of the island of Gorée and the city of Saint-Louis in French Senegal during the 18th and 19th centuries. These women of color managed to gain some individual assets, status, and power in the hi ...
s *
Bandeirantes The ''Bandeirantes'' (), literally "flag-carriers", were slavers, explorers, adventurers, and fortune hunters in early Colonial Brazil. They are largely responsible for Brazil's great expansion westward, far beyond the Tordesillas Line of 1494 ...


References

{{Reflist


Sources

* Coates, T.J. (2001) ''Convicts and orphans: forced and state-sponsored colonizers in the Portuguese Empire, 1550-1755'', Stanford University Press. * Diffie, B. W., and G. D. Winius (1977) Foundations of the Portuguese empire, 1415–1580, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press * Russell-Wood, A.J.R. (1998) The Portuguese Empire 1415–1808: A world on the move. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. * Subrahmanyam, S. (1997) The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Portuguese Empire Portuguese colonisation in Africa Forced migration Penal labour Maritime history of Portugal Portuguese words and phrases Portuguese exploration in the Age of Discovery History of the conversos