Chica da Silva

Chapter 4 to 6
 Manumission
 Date chosen for Chica’s manumission
– Christmas Day, December 25
 Meanings

 Manumission practice

 Process of coartation – self-purchase

 Freedom - owner’s will – most common
practice
 Advantages – perspective of the owner
 Concubinage
 consensual unions –
 advantages for the black or mulatto
women and their descendants
 Focus on Chica da Silva
 Children born from consensual unions
– received their freedom at baptism
 Freed women
 in many instances they claimed that
they had earned their freedom by their
own means (by paying for it)
 Acquired assets and/or properties on
their own agency
 Evidence – found in last wills and
testaments
 Slave women who lived as concubines
had better opportunities of being
manumitted, according to Furtado
 irmandades
 Common practice –
 membership in Brotherhoods –
irmandades
 Religious function
 Associated with status in the
community
Marriage – Church sacrament
 No civil marriages at this time – only
through the Church
 Concept of marriage – idea of
“marriage of reason”
 To make alliances; social and
economic reasons; family strategies
 Ideas of love and passion were not a
consideration at the time
 Consensual unions
 provided appearance of “legality and
stability” without the blessing of the Church
 In many instances, the relationship lasted
longer than the ‘legal marriage’
 Evidence in the relationship between
Francisca da Silva de Oliveira [Chica da
Silva] and Joao Fernandes de Oliveira
 Measures of ‘stability’
 Early manumission
 Acquisition of patrimony (assets and
properties)
 Los ‘Oliveira’
 Use of the name ‘Oliveira’
 Number of children they had
together – named after
members of the parents’
families
 Longevity of the relationship
 Family life
 Refer to the thirteen children, their names
and family references – evidence of ‘stability’
 Chica gave birth at regular intervals –
evidence that she lived with Joao Fernandes
de Oliveira for a long time
 Did not breastfeed her children – use of wet
nurses – common practice of ladies of the
upper classes – the role of these women was
to perpetuate the family line
 Chica’s case – to assure that there were male
heirs – important evidence
 Baptism – public ceremony
 Introduction of the child to the Catholic
religion – also provided social status in the
community
 Selection of godparents – important way to
create social alliances [equivalent of
networks in contemporary times]
 Obligations of godparents; considerations of
loyalty and friendship; alliances created
 Social Roles
 House owned by Chica – status associated with
property
 Hierarchical society – Tejuco society
 External appearances revealed the social position of
the individual
 Evidence – way a person dressed; whether a person
attended a public ceremony or not; a walk around
the village – represented opportunities to affirm
one’s position – a social role for the individual
 Dress was not as simple, included the right
accessories and jewelry
 Social Status
 Slave ownership
 Sign or evidence of social status – patrimony
of the individual; meant that the person was
not involved with physical labor
 Chica owned slaves and her descendants
 Common practice at the time; many
generations of freedmen and women had
owned slaves
 Evidence found in last wills and testaments
 Parish records [death, baptism, and marriage
records and brotherhood [irmandades]
memberships] – evidence that Chica da Silva
owned at least 104 slaves at different times –
see p. 154-155
 Comparison of Chica’s assets with those of
other people from the region
 Evidence of Chica’s patrimony
 Practices of local society in Tejuco –
establish connections with the local elite
 Public ceremonies – opportunities to
demonstrate one’s social position in the
village
 Participating in religious processions –
common practice [equivalent of going to
social events in contemporary times] –
distinction
 Sponsor of weddings and baptisms – created
‘networks’ and interdependence between
different social segments
 Built a chapel – grounds of Palha
farmhouse near Tejuco
 Slaves married at this chapel
 Fulfilled their role as faithful masters
and good Christians
 Chica da Silva as a sponsor – her
status as a parda and freedwoman
limited her selection as godmother to
children of equal or lesser status
 Baptism
 Slave owners did not baptize the children of
their own slaves – not acceptable
 Evidence that Chica da Silva de Oliveira and
Joao Fernandes de Oliveira did baptize a
child – son of Severina creole – baptism held
in San Antonio parish church
 Charity – not only a Christian obligation –
considered an obligation of the wealthy –
perceived as a sign of prestige