Slavery, Sex, and the Creation of Political Order in Dutch Brazil

When the Dutch West India Company conquered northern Brazil in 1630, its representatives proposed plans to reorganize marriage and sex regulation along Protestant lines.  The new regulations were supposed to apply to all in the colony, including Luso-Brazilian, Dutch, indigenous, and enslaved, and would have implied a small measure of equality as all would have been prosecuted – and protected – according to the same standard.  Instead, the colonial government abandoned the regulation of the enslaved community and selectively enforced the laws governing intercultural sex.  This paper argues that this uneven implementation of the reforms served to maintain the already established racial hierarchy in Brazil, while also signifying and structuring a new political hierarchy in the colony that privileged the Dutch invaders over the Luso-Brazilian colonists.

            By categorizing enslaved people as too promiscuous and immoral to restrain their sexuality, the Dutch government justified the institution of slavery and the racial hierarchy that privileged Europeans over Africans.  Some enslaved individuals, however, rejected this characterization and successfully gained recognition for their marriages as well as protection from forced separation.  Others used the Dutch government’s lack of interest in their community to maintain cultural practices, such as polygamy, that were ostensibly forbidden.

            In their prosecutions for the crime of intercultural sex, Dutch authorities penalized Luso-Brazilian colonists, punishing them for sexual relationships with slaves.  At the same time, authorities generally ignored Dutch men who engaged in the same intercultural relationships.  These prosecutions helped to reinforce a new hierarchy that supported Dutch and Calvinist power, while minimizing Portuguese and Catholic influence.  Although Dutch governance is generally characterized as rooted in tolerance for other groups, this paper suggests that Dutch authorities were also interested in privileging specifically Dutch interests.