– Master of sugar works:
– Gilberto Freyre emphasized the dominance of the senhor de engenho in colonial Brazil.
– The senhores de engenho were powerful Portuguese landowners.
– Inbreeding was common among these landowners to maintain pure bloodlines.
– The motto of these landowners reflected their attitudes towards marriage and relationships.
– Sugar cane plantations in Brazil and the U.S. shared similarities in their reliance on slave labor.
– Components of a casa-grande:
– The casa-grande consisted of the Big House, the senzala, and the engenho.
– The senhor de engenho was in charge of sugar production.
– The master had control over the land, slaves, and plantation community.
– Larger casas-grandes were self-sustaining and isolated.
– Essential structures like schools, infirmaries, and cemeteries were part of these plantations.
– Economic and social system:
– Casa-grandes were self-contained economic, social, political, and cultural systems.
– The architecture of the Big House symbolized stability in Hispanic America.
– The senhores de engenho were more powerful than viceroys or bishops.
– The heavy-set, horizontal architecture of the Big House was a hallmark of this civilization.
– Plantation communities were largely self-sufficient and isolated.
– Geographic distribution:
– Casa-grandes were predominantly located in the northeast of Brazil.
– Areas like Bahia and Pernambuco were known for these plantation estates.
– Sugar cane cultivation also occurred in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
– The larger casas-grandes were often situated away from developed coastal regions.
– The isolation of these plantations contributed to their self-sustainability.
– Cultural implications:
– The plantation community included structures like schools, chapels, and cemeteries.
– Maintaining armies on plantations was common in the early days.
– The culture of casa-grandes was characterized by heavy inbreeding among landowners.
– The motto of the landowners reflected their attitudes towards marriage and relationships.
– The architecture of the Big House symbolized stability and power in the plantation society.
The casa-grande (Portuguese and Spanish: "big house") was the Brazilian equivalent of a Southern plantation in the United States. These casas-grandes were predominantly located in the northeast of Brazil (areas such as present day Bahia and Pernambuco). Additionally, sugar cane was grown in the interior, in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
The casa-grande was made up of three main components: the Big House, the senzala (slave quarters), and the engenho (sugar cane mill). The master of sugar production was called the senhor de engenho ("master of the sugar works"). His word was final, and he had control over the land, the slaves, and the women who made up the plantation community.
The larger casas-grandes were self-sustaining, since they were isolated from the more developed coastal regions. Essential structures that were built included the school, the nursery, the infirmary, the family chapel, the master’s harem, the bank, and the cemetery. In the early days it was necessary to maintain an army on the plantation. Those armies were sometimes very large, having up to one hundred Indians/half-breeds.
These plantations constituted a largely self-contained economic, social, political, and cultural system.