Ofício do assistente substituto do magistrado do distrito de Xiangshan, ao procurador de Macau, sobre a desordem provocada por escravos negros, na povoação de Mong Há
This official placard (*pái*), issued by the Xiangshan County Magistracy in Guangdong Province during the late Qing period, documents administrative concerns regarding repeated incursions into Wangxia Village by enslaved Africans (*hei nu*) fleeing Portuguese colonial authority in Macau. Dated by in...
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| Format: | Manuscripts |
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| Published: |
1787-10-08
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| Online Access: | https://macau-legacy.usj.edu.mo/docs/VD87IEAV/viewer_VD87IEAV.html |
| Summary: | This official placard (*pái*), issued by the Xiangshan County Magistracy in Guangdong Province during the late Qing period, documents administrative concerns regarding repeated incursions into Wangxia Village by enslaved Africans (*hei nu*) fleeing Portuguese colonial authority in Macau. Dated by internal reference to lunar calendar events—including the twentieth to twenty-second days of the fifth lunar month—and bearing two red ink seals (*Nèi Yì* and *Quán*), the document names Deputy Magistrate Chen Fen (submitted by village headman Chen Huangting) and cites testimony from village elders Li Wenxiong and others. It reports that approximately twenty enslaved individuals entered the village over multiple nights, engaging in theft (notably of sweet potatoes), entering private dwellings, and instilling widespread fear among local residents whose livelihoods depend on agriculture and fishing. The text identifies implicated European residents (*báikēn*) and names specific foreign magistrates (*Yí mù*)—Mo Da (Mota) and Wū Lǔ Duō (Ulrudo or cognate)—residing in Macau, urging their intervention to restrain enslaved personnel under their jurisdiction. The placard formally commands immediate cessation of such movements and asserts Qing administrative authority over cross-border conduct affecting rural security. As a primary source, it offers critical insight into Sino-Portuguese frontier governance, local responses to colonial slavery, and late imperial mechanisms of rural order maintenance in the Pearl River Delta region. |
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