Its main wealth was sugar, and manioc, tobacco and corn were also produced, although on a smaller scale; hides, skins and brazilwood were exported.

[1] In 1730, the governor of Pernambuco, proposing to the king the extinction of the decadent captaincy of Paraíba, pointed out the prosperity of Alagoas, which already had almost fifty sugar cane mills, ten parishes, and considerable income for the royal treasury.

[1] In 1754, Friar João de Santa Ângela published his book of sermons and poetry in Lisbon; it is the first work by a man from Alagoas.

Taking advantage of the situation and breaking his own royal laws, he dismembered the region from Pernambuco's jurisdiction and established a provisional government there.

A sequence of movements shook provincial life: in 1824, the Confederation of the Equator; in 1832–1835, the Cabanada; in 1844, the rebellion known as Lisos e Cabeludos; in 1849, the repercussions of the Praieira revolt.

In the economic field, it is worth mentioning the foundation, in 1857, of the União Mercantil Company, the first fabric factory in Alagoas, located in the Fernão Velho district and idealized by the Baron of Jaraguá, which contributed to the fomentation of the regional economy.

[1] The abolitionist and republican movements of the last years of the monarchy would reach the province through the Sociedade Libertadora Alagoana and the newspapers Gutenberg and Lincoln.

Teachers and journalists attracted the youth to the campaign, and after the abolition, in 1888, it was Francisco Domingues da Silva who took the initiative to create a professional education institute for the children of former slaves.

[1] On the same day that, in Rio de Janeiro, the republic was proclaimed, and in Maceió, Dr. Pedro Ribeiro Moreira, the last delegate of the imperial government for the province, assumed the presidency.