Qualla: Inconfidência Mineira

Inconfidência Mineira: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PQ3, CC BY-SA 3.0. The conspirators met in Vila Rica - now called Ouro Preto - and talked about freedom in borrowed words. They had read Jefferson. They had studied at Coimbra. They had watched the thirteen British colonies throw off their empire and wondered if Minas Gerais could do the same. But their plot collapsed before it began, betrayed by one of their own, and only one man refused to hide behind others when the crown came for answers. Joaquim José da Silva Xavier - Tiradentes, the tooth-puller - hanged in Rio de Janeiro on 21 April 1792. His body was then cut into pieces and sent back to Minas to be displayed in every town where he had spoken of liberty.

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Image: PQ3 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Inconfidência Mineira: The Inspiration

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Valter Campanato/ABr, CC BY 3.0 br. The Inconfidência Mineira - the Minas Gerais Conspiracy - drew its inspiration from two revolutions abroad and one crisis at home. The American Revolutionary War had ended six years before, and the news of its success circulated among the intellectual elite of the captaincy. Braz...

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Image: Valter Campanato/ABr | CC BY 3.0 br

Inconfidência Mineira: The Fifth and the Derrama

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Adam Jones Adam63, CC BY-SA 3.0. Ideas abroad met grievances at home. Gold mining in Minas Gerais had been declining for decades, and the Portuguese crown demanded its share - the *quinto*, one-fifth of all production. As the mines gave less, the miners fell behind on taxes. When annual quotas could not be met, ...

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Image: Adam Jones Adam63 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Inconfidência Mineira: The Betrayal

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leopoldino Faria, Public domain. The conspiracy never rose. Three of the conspirators - most notably Joaquim Silvério dos Reis, who owed significant debts and hoped to have them forgiven - went to the colonial authorities and named names. Arrests began in 1789. The lawyer Alvarenga Peixoto was captured and sente...

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Image: Leopoldino Faria | Public domain

Inconfidência Mineira: Tiradentes

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Joaquim José da Silva Xavier earned the name Tiradentes - *tooth-puller* - because he had practiced rudimentary dentistry among other trades. He came from the dragoons regiment commanded by Freire de Andrade, and he was the conspiracy's most tireless propagandist, traveling betwe...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Inconfidência Mineira: The Flag, the Motto, the Afterlife

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Utilizadorpadrao, CC BY-SA 4.0. The conspirators had designed a flag for the republic they never built: an equilateral triangle on a white field, inspired by the Holy Trinity, with a Latin motto from Virgil's Eclogues reading *Libertas quae sera tamen* - "Freedom, albeit late." Tradition holds that the conspira...

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Image: Utilizadorpadrao | CC BY-SA 4.0