62 CHICA DASILVA in stating that che was “a black wornan from the Coast of Guinea’ of, a3 informed in 1768, “a black freedwoman from the heathens of 4 ; Guinea.” ‘At the time, the expression “heathens of Guinea” was used gener. ically to describe all blacks from Greatet West Africa, a region that stretched from Guinea Bissau along the so-called Gold Coast of Mina to Equatorial Guinea, combining the Portuguese toponymy and African geography. When the slaves reached Brazil they were generally identified on the registers by their tribe of origin, though assuch designations were very imprecise, they usually ended up being ‘registered under whatever African port they had sailed from"? The expression da Costa (from the Coast) associated with count- less slaves isa reference to the Slave Coast, a region of Africa that corresponds to the Benin and Nigetia of today, and which was inhab- ied by Sudanese blacks, generally referred to as Minas. The tena derived from the castle of Sio Jorge da Mina, also called Elmina, which was the point of departure for slave ships leaving from the northwestern coast of Africa, better known as the Coast of Guinea. The most important region of the Coast of Guinea was the Gold Coast of Mina,* where gold mining was a major activity, so its peo- ple were already skilled in extraction techniques. The slaves rounded up in this region were exported en masse to Minas Gerais, where they formed the majority of slaves up to the mid-eighteenth cen tury. These expressions and terms were used indiscriminately and so did not designate any single tribe or ethnicity, but rather lumped together the different groups that were shipped to Brazil via the 7 same point of embarkation: the castle of Sto Jorge in northeastem Africa. ‘The Minas were generally considered more efficient workers, more | resistant to illness and stronger than slaves from other regions. Ibidem. Depositions of the witnesses Capeain Luts Lopes da Costa and Captain Luis de Mendoniga Cabral. Captain Major Francisco Malhetros de Amato st the grandmother vas “Maria da Cost, feed black woman, native of the Gute) Conse.” Maty C. Karaseh. Op. cit, pp 367 % Mary C. Karatchy op. cit 9-64 © AJR Russell: Wood, op city 1982, p. 113 ANCESTRY 6 “hey were feated by heir masters for thetr indomitable epiit, prone- sess to revolt, and intellectual superiority (many were Muslim andl | ghle to read and write in Arabic).?* The Mina women were known "for theiz beaut o frequently praised by che foreign eravelers visit | ng Beil in the nineteenth century: lighter in color and with long | slender bodies they were abvays the first to be chosen by the white | pen as concubines. "From 1711 to 1720, approximately 60.2% of saves imported into the Captaincy were Minas. This figure dropped | to 54.1% between 1721 and 1730 and later to 34.2%, when the us and Angolans started coming over in greater quantities to work the filds."° In 1725, the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Luis Vaia Monteiro, - tnagicians nd witches, for having introduced the devil, as chey alone find gold, and so for chis reason every miner must have a ‘Mina blac, claiming chat only with these is thete any fortune to ‘behad. ___ Maria da Costa, like many women in Minas Gerais, succeeded in, | being manumited. She probably took the name da Costa ether in |__eletence to the sumame of her former owner or to her oxgins on a Gold Coast of Mina, The reverend Leonardo da Costa Almeida | veiled that no sconer had she obtained manumission than she “Tift the village of Milho Verde with her children and settled in _Fejuco% Ie is only through this account that we learn that she | Social numa frente de povoamento,710-1733.” In Eréro Mineral vl. 2, 2003, | Pp. 45-105, Calculations based on inventories from Minas Gers show that | Ne iajority of Aficen slaves during th i ican saves during the period 1720 to 1888 were Benguela J 859, Angolm (230%), Congan (09), and Mine (2059). Lae W. ete pct, prs. » ABAM. Auto de gener: au NEAM. Aso de gees tmenbs de Sino Pes Sanda. 1768, Armor, pasa64 CHICA DA SILVA hhad other children besides Chiea da Silva, There is also a reference toa baptism: in 1740, the chaplain Jofo de Sousa Lemos baptized Anasticio, son of Maria of the Mina nation, slave to Domingos da Costa, who granted him manumission at the baptismal urn.95 Does the fact that Maria obtained manumission and adopted the surname Costa once freed indicate that she had had an illicit rela. tionship with her owner, as was s0 common in Minas Gerais? Domin. anos da Costa was married to Ana da Costa, both freed blacks, and the couple had at least one daughter, named Catarina, who was baptized in Tejuco in 1743.%% It is not known exactly how Chica’s mother secured her liberty, but, whatever her mechanisms might have been, itwas the fist time women like Maria da Casta could take their o¥n, decisions and point their lives in whatever directions they sav fi. Icis possible to follow the life paths of many ex-slaves who, like Chica and her mother, were manumitted and became the mistresses of their own destinies. In her will, which was weitcen in Tejuco, the freedwoman Ana da Gl6ria offered a glimpse of how she interpreted het own fife, using verbs in the passive voice when describing her coming to Brazil, her marriage, and conversion to Catholicism, then switching to active voice when treating of her manumission, demon strating that by securing her freedom she had also seized control of her own life” In 1737, freed black woman named Maria da Costa had a daugh- tet named Rita. There is no way we can be sure that this Maria da Costa was Chica da Silva's mother, as many freedwomen adopted this surname, but the fact does suggest 2 possible connection with Chica, who had the habit of naming her children after members of hers and Joao Fernandes' families: Rita was the first name of one of her daughters and the second of another. This Maria da Costa, now in the condition of freedwoman, moved to Conceigo do Mato Dentro, midway between Tejuco and Sabard, where she lived a far from con- ‘ventional life. ABAD. Livro de batizados do anrial do Tejuco. 2742-1954. Caixa 297, £33 idem, f 48, ABAD. Livro de ébitos do analal do Tefuco. Caixa 521 3977-398. AEAD. Documentos sem identificagao, Caen 230. Baas = moral ANCESTRY 6s ‘During the eighteenth century, the captainey of Minas Gerais was © pobilized by the Catholic Church in scarch of sinners. In terms of sand good habits, che most common sin was coneubinage, usu ily berween white men and mulatto orblack women. The instability df these relationships was due in large part ca the mansitory nature ffthe mining business and the very composition of the population ~ in the newly inhabited diamantine region, for example, there was "string disproportion between the number of men and women. ‘An examination of the census conducted in Serro do Frio in 1738, aihich included the Diamantine District, reveals that, of the total of 9,681 inhabitants, 83.5 percent were men and 16.5 percent women. ‘Among the slave population, only 3.x percent were women, as min- jing was basically work for men. However, the proportion is reversed when it comes to freed slaves, swith women constituting the grand majority. The same document tells us that 63 percent of the 387 former slaves reintroduced to the census were female and 37 percent male, a clear indication that women were the greatest beneficiaries of manumission and far _ more likely to accumulate assets. Once freed, they oscillated between, social exclusion and inclusion, however precarious, in the universe formerly restricted exclusively to the free whites of Minas Gerais. As a result, concubinage proliferated not only in the Diaman- tine Demarcation, but throughout the entire captaincy, and the main mechanism the Catholic Church had ar its disposal in endeavoring to shape the morals and customs of its sinful flock was the ecclesias- tieal visit. From time to time the bishops patroled the villages and villas to root out crimes against morality and the faith. A board of inquisition would be installed and the residents shamed into con- fessing their own sins and denouncing those of others. All matters “public and notorious" were investigated, and many moral stains seeped from the local streets. While some confessed to what they could not hide, others took the chance to re-ignite old tensions and ‘grudges between neighbors and rivals. The denunciations, verdicts ‘of guilt, and corresponding sentences were registered in well-kept books in which the inquisitors, by their zeal, have bequeathed to the researcher an invaluable source of information feom which to recon- stouet the daily colonial routine of that region6 CHICA DA SILVA In.1748, in Conceigao do Mato Dentro, the Maria cla Costa previ. ously mentioned was indicted during one such visit. While it cannot be affirmed in all certainty that we are dealing with the same per. son hete, it must be remembered that she did move to Conecisaa after her manumission. Though already an ironmonger’s mistres, Maria da Costa was accused of sleeping with “every man who offered himself Various witnesses testified to the fact that it was general knowledge in the village that her jealous companion beat her fre. quently. On one of these occasions “they abused each other with jealous curses and blows and fit was said] that the way of life of [the accused) had resulted in a great deal of ruin and death," Tt appears that Maria da Costa was involved in a lot of strife in Conceigio do Mato Dentro and that the kind of life she led was an example of the tensions caused by the influx of freedwomen of low social station. If she really was involved with various men, she must have provoked the ire of various women. One such woman threat- ened physical aggression, claiming to be “capable of levelling a blow against Out Lady of the Pillar.”*** It was not unusual for the settlers to confer meanings upon the cults of saines that were markedly dif- ferent to those officially recommended by the Catholie Church, thus popularizing them to the point that women would sometimes bring religion into their daily disputes and tensions. Accused of being a harlot, the defendant retorted that if she was a sinful woman, she ‘was no different than Saint Mary Magdalene, a riposte that promptly scandalized the society and clergy alike.’ Despite the censure of the church, Maria da Costa did not change hher ways. A few years later she was denounced yet again by one Fran- cisco de Brito Bittencourt who revealed that “with her tongue”"®) she was a public and scandalous woman and that her nickname in the village was “the broomstick.” In 1753, the inquisitor Miguel de Carvalho Almeida Neves noted that, though she had promised to ABAM, Devaisas, Fevereiro de 1948.33 > ABAM, Devas, Fevereito de 2743, £33. " AEAM, Devassas Fevereiro de 1748, fh. 317-32. Tider, "5 AEAM, Devassa de 1750-1755 ffs 16-16, ANCESTRY 6 mend her ways, Maria da Costa continued “to insult both men and women with slanderous and indecent names.""* In addition to this, she was found guilty of concubinage in the frst instance, that is, for the first time, with one Bartolomeu Martins da Rocha, who lived ‘on the outskirts of the village. Condemned on both counts, she was ordered to pay two eighths of gold to the tribunal and was threatened ‘with more rigorous punishment unless she changed her behavior. As she was illiterate, she signed her terms of guile with an X. However, if this Maria da Costa teally was Chica da Silva’s mother, with her fierce tongue and less than orthodox religiosity, in other moments we see her observing Catholic rites, especially those ised on relationships of favor, friendship, or eronyism. In 1753 she tumed up at the Santo Antdnio church in Tejuco to fulfil the role of godmother at che baptism of the daughter of a slave named Silvéria. Her condition is noted a’ freedwoman in the baptismal records." In Simo Pires Sardinha’s de genere process for entry into the Lower Orders, the witnesses describe her as a good Christian, Cap- tain Luis Lopes da Costa, a white Portuguese who had been living in TTejuco for some fourteen years by that time, affirmed that Maria da Costa is a Christian and has lived her life in the creed and teachings of the Holy Mother Church, as a Christian woman ‘of old, observing all the requirements of the Laws of God and the Holy Mother Church and all of the functions and pious acts... with great devotion [and] special zeal, giving alms and contribut- ing with all she can to the divine cult." Reverend José Ribeiro Aldongo was yet more specific, declaring that she attended mass every day and took communion on various ‘occasions per year? In x74, Maria da Costa was living in a house of her own on Rua Macau in Tejuco, where her neighbors included Silvestre de Almeida, a pardo painter, and Manuel do Nascimento, a 'S° ABAD. Livna de tertos do Sera do Feo. 2750. Caisa 557, 6 1 "et ABAD, Livro de batios do arial do Teco. 745-1765. Cala 297 6x ™* ABAM. Awode ener es monibus de Simao Paes Sardnka, x68. Arndt to, pasta 278, Inquirgdo de costumes. Witness cepitio Luis Lopes da Costa *? Tider. Inquirgao de costumes. Witness priest Joxé Ribeito Allongo,7 @ CHICA DA SILVA, white man who lived in the company of his wife, four sons, and fou, daughters.?°° ‘The governor of Minas Gerais, the Count of alveias, was hors fied by the laxity of customs and subversion of order he beheld on hig arrival in the village in 1733 and issued the following order for the repression of the public sins that rum so loose and free in the village of Tejuco, due to the high number of dishonest women in the same village living. life so dissolute and scandalous that, not content to parade about in sedan-chairs and pole couches accompanied by slaves, they have the irreverence to dare enter the house of God in rich ‘and pompous garments totally unbeftting and inappropriate to their station." Maria da Costa was not alone. In the diamantine society, the trap- pings that were the exclusive prerogative of the white ladies back in the Realm ~ the access to the outward signs of distinction ~ had to be shared with black and mulatto freedwomen, clouding the social hierarchy and giving it fluidity, even if many of these freedwomen behaved in a less than conventional manner: ** AHU, MAMG. Caixa 108 doe. 9.8, 9 Bando do governaiar de 2 de desetbro de 1933,