RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Biographies, Slavery, and Freedom
JF African Economic History
JO Afr Eco His
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 91
OP 108
DO 10.3368/aeh.48.1.91
VO 48
IS 1
A1 NIELSON ROSA BEZERRA
A1 MOISÉS PEIXOTO
YR 2020
UL https://aeh.uwpress.org/aeh.uwpress.org/content/48/1/91.abstract
AB The article explores social mobility of Africans in the rural areas of Brazil in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, specifically in the hinterland of Rio de Janeiro in Recôncavo da Guanabara. The article examines what is known about two African women, Gracia Maria and Rosa Maria da Silva, who lived in the parishes of Iguaçu and Jacutinga. Despite the inherent hardships of captivity, the trajectories of these women can be reconstructed to some extent from their wills that portray their success in producing manioc flour and establishing alliances that enabled them to improve their social standing and their recognition as slave ladies.