Place:Sergipe, Brazil

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Sergipe, officially State of Sergipe, is a state of Brazil. Located in the Northeast Region along the Atlantic coast of the country, Sergipe is the smallest state in Brazil by geographical area at , larger only than the Federal District. Sergipe borders Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north. Aracaju is the capital and the largest city in the state; the state is divided into 75 municipalities. The state has 1.1% of the Brazilian population and produces only 0.6% of the Brazilian GDP.^[1]

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Present-day Sergipe was home to numerous indigenous peoples, including the Kanindé (Canindé), Aratus, and Tupi peoples. Gaspar de Lemos briefly landed in the region in 1501, and the Portuguese Crown declared the region part of the Captaincy of Bahia. São Cristóvão was the site of the first Portuguese settlement, in 1591, at Sergipe D'El-Rey.

As with other states in the northeast, Sergipe was invaded numerous times by the Dutch, and frequently raided by French buccaneers. During the 17th century, the state was known throughout the Americas for its king-wood, a prized commodity that was the primary attraction during the buccaneer raids, and probably a factor in Dutch military expeditions. From 1641 to 1645, the territory belonged to Dutch-controlled Brazil (New Holland). The Dutch built a fort, the first in the region, between the rivers São Francisco and Sergipe.

The Portuguese regained control in 1645. By the 18th century, the Portuguese military had driven off the pirates permanently. Sergipe remained a part of the state of Bahia, and was responsible for a third of Bahia's sugar production by 1723. Sugarcane culture was established in the valleys of the São Francisco, Japaratuba, Sergipe, Vaza-Barris, Piauí and Real rivers. Areas unsuitable for sugarcane plantations on the coast and in the hinterland were developed for livestock; Sergipe subsequently became a supplier of draft animals for the farms of Bahia and Pernambuco. The region was also a significant producer of leather. John VI of Portugal signed a decree to separated Sergipe from Bahia on July 8, 1820, and Brigadier Carlos César Burlamárqui was named the state's first governor.^[1]

Sergipe retained its separation from Bahia after the Independence of Brazil in 1822, first briefly as the Captaincy of Sergipe, then as the Province of Sergipe. Economic development was low during the Empire of Brazil in the 19th century, other than a brief cotton boom in the second half of the century. The provincial president Inácio Joaquim Barbosa moved the capital from inland São Cristóvão to coastal Aracaju on the coast on March 17, 1855. Sergipe became a state under the proclamation of the Republic of Brazil in 1892.

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