This work is based on inventories and manuscript censuses (1831-32 e 1873) and focuses demographic elements, occupational structure and resources levels of the Araxá population - especially the slaveholders - between 1816 and 1888. In Araxá, the economy, distinguished through the cattle raising activity and agricultural production for domestic consumption, was capable of population increase maintenance in the XIX century, according to the presented censuses data. Bigger resources had been joined to the modest resources found initially, pointing to resources levels variations in the community and to variations on its concentration. We may say that resources and occupational structure presented some kind of relation to the size of the slaveholding.
slaveholding; slave demography; slavery economy; wealth distribution
