Degredado
Degredado
Degredado, a "degraded" person, one who was convicted of crimes by royal and Inquisition courts and sent to the colonies or the galleys to serve the sentence. The Portuguese crown used this punishment to rid Portugal of petty criminals and social deviants. As they explored Africa and Brazil, Portuguese sea captains left degredados ashore to learn local languages and customs. Later, degredados figured prominently in the early colonization of Angola and Brazil. Although officials protested receiving degredados in Brazil, they themselves adopted the practice and sentenced Brazilian criminals and deviants to Africa, the galleys, or frontier outposts.
See alsoInquisition: Brazil .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sônia A. Siqueira, A Inquisição Portuguesa e a sociedade colonial (1978).
A. J. R. Russell-Wood, A World on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America (1992).
Additional Bibliography
Bueno, Eduardo. Náufragos, traficantes e degredados: As primeiras expedições ao Brasil, 1500–1531. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 1998.
Coates, Timothy J. Convicts and Orphans: Forced and State-sponsored Colonizers in the Portuguese Empire, 1550–1755. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Pieroni, Geraldo. Vadios e ciganos, heréticos e bruxas: As degredados no Brasil-colônia. Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Cultura, Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, Departa-mento Nacional do Livro: Bertrand Brasil, 2001.
Alida C. Metcalf