Biographies, Slavery, and Freedom: Wills as Autobiographical Documents of Africans in Diaspora

ABSTRACT:The article explores social mobility of Africans in the rural areas of Brazil in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, specifically in the hinter-land 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.