Chica da Silva

By Junia Ferreira Furtado

2003
 Chica da Silva
 Quasi-mythical ex-slave in Brazilian history
 She lived in the eighteenth-century
 Lived in Minas Gerais
 historian Júnia Ferreria Furtado asks:
 who was Chica da Silva?
 Furtado wants to find the woman who lived on
the 'other side of the myth'.

 Primary Sources
 parish records: births, marriages, deaths;
 sales and purchases of houses, land,
slaves in notaries;
 wills and inventories;
 a 1774 house-by-house census and
 the tax rolls for Tejuco, now Diamantina,
where Chica lived most of her free life
 Manuel Pires Sardinha
 1749 - Chica had been bought by Manuel
Pires Sardinha, probably as his concubine.
 two years later gave birth to Simão.
 Sardinha got in trouble with the Church
because of illicit relations with his two
slave women.
 Sold Chica in January 1753 to João
Fernandes de Oliviera, probably to be his
concubine.
 João Fernandes de Oliveira
 The diamond contractor, her companion,
her quasi-husband for 18 years.
 Friends with the provincial governor and
 Friends with the powerful José de
Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal.
 Chica da Silva
 Bornto an African slave mother and a
white father a few years after the
discovery of diamonds — sometime
between 1731 and 1735,
 Family Life
 João and Chica had 13 children together
in 18 years in addition to Simão.
 All the children were baptized and
recognized as heirs; all educated —
 the girls at a convent in Minas,
 the boys in Portugal.
 JoãoFernandes' departed from Chica in
1770 with news of his father's death in
Lisboa in order to protect his estate.
 Separation
 João Fernandes spent the next years in Lisbon
in legal battles to save his fortune.
 The sons followed him to Europe to complete
their educations.
 Chica remained in Tejuco in charge of their nine
daughters.
 By 1775 João Fernandes was ill and dying.
 With the king's death in 1777 his fortunes went
from bad to worse. He died without returning to
Brazil or to Chica.
 Theme of the book
 The theme is
 Chica's effort to insert herself into free, white society,
 Observing its rules for wife, mother, dona da casa,
patron of church and sodalities —
 Chica became Francisca da Suva de Oliveira, a return
both to her baptismal name and the addition of João
Fernandes' surname as her own.
 It was common practice among freed slaves to take their
former master's name but here the borrowing is like
more a wife assuming her married name.
 Allied with a man whose wealth and prestige she
informally shared, she gained a social position she could
never have achieved alone.
 Widow
 Chica lived twenty years more years
 She remained a wealthy woman with land
and slaves of her own.
 Her burial inside the church near the main
altar and the many masses offered for her
soul confirmed her earthly prominence.
 Chica herself owned at least 104 slaves
over the course of her lifetime