Licentious Liberty" in a Brazilian Gold-Mining Region: Slavery, Gender, and Social Control in Eighteenth-Century Sabara, Minas Gerais

Rating:
Summary: A highly recommended study on brazilian slavery
Review: "Licentious Liberty' in a Brazilian Gold-Mining Region : Slavery, Gender, and Social Control in Eighteenth-Century Sabara, Minas Gerais" is a wonderful examination of the interactions between masters and slaves in the gold-mining areas in eighteenth-century Brazil. This masterpiece shows how the gender relations between female slaves and their white masters have often subverted the values of a hypocritical and conservative society, allowing the changing of status of black women, among which the most famous one was certainly Chica da Silva, a former slave who began to live among the members of the limited gold-mining elite after becoming the concubine of a portuguese official. This book is speacially advisable for those interested in slavery and general sociology.