Protagonismo materno na conquista da liberdade: Salvador, c. 1750 – c. 1770

Abstract

Based on the analysis of the justifications presented by slave owners when granting letters of freedom in the City of Bahia (Salvador), in the middle of the 18th century, I highlight the maternal role in achieving legal freedom of enslaved boys and girls. This research focuses on the years 1751 to 1766, aiming to fill the gap left by historians Stuart Schwartz, who analyzed manumissions in the period 1684-1745, and Kátia Mattoso, who investigated them in the period 1779-1850. One of the aims was to transcend the purely quantitative approach of manumission letters and make a social interpretation of enslaved and freed women, considering their profile, their struggles to achieve legal freedom and their experiences as mothers of captive children. To carry out this work, extensive research was done in diverse sources, such as the 1026 letters of freedom contained in 14 notary books from the Salvador, wills and post-mortem inventories, baptismal records from the parish of Nossa Senhora da Penha de Itapagipe, N. S. da Conceição da Praia, N. S. do Pilar and the parish of Sé, in addition to marriage and death registration books of the parish of Penha, petitions, military patents and permits, demographic censuses, sale and settlement deeds contained in the notary books of Salvador, among other sources. Female agency in obtaining letters of manumission for children born in captivity also enabled me to visualize usually invisible paternities of men of African origin, Afro-descendants, and without classification of color/origin, whether enslaved, freed or free. Thus, another novelty of this thesis is to analyze the role of fathers in obtaining freedom for their enslaved children, and other experiences of fatherhood in the context of slavery and freedom.