Conceiving Freedom: Women of Color, Gender, and the Abolition of Slavery in Havana and Rio de Janeiro

Contents

Contents Acknowledgments, ix Note on Currency, xiii Introduction, 1 part one. gender, law, and urban slavery 1 / Sites of Enslavement, Spaces of Freedom, 23 Slavery and Abolition in the Atlantic Cities of Havana and Rio de Janeiro 2 / The Law Is Final, Excellent Sir, 47 Slave Law, Gender, and Gradual Emancipation part two. seeking freedom 3 / As a Slave Woman and as a Mother, 71 Law, Jurisprudence, and Rhetoric in Stories from Women’s Claims-Making 4 / Exaggerated and Sentimental?, 97 Engendering Abolitionism in the Atlantic World 5 / I Wish to Be in This City, 123 Mapping Women’s Quest for Urban Freedom part three. conceiving freedom 6 / Enlightened Mothers of Families or Competent Domestic Servants?, 151 Elites Imagine the Meanings of Freedom 7 / She Was Now a Free Woman, 174 Ex-Slave Women and the Meanings of Urban Freedom 8 / My Mother Was Free-Womb, She Wasn’t a Slave, 198 Conceiving Freedom Conclusion, 214 Epilogue, 220 Conceiving Citizenship Notes, 223 Bibliography, 273 Index, 311 Maps and Illustrations maps Havana, 1881, 24 Rio de Janeiro, 1864, 24 illustrations Statue depicting Mariana Grajales, Havana, 4 “Female fruit seller,” Cuba, 1871, 33 “The Quitandeira,” Brazil, 1857, 33 Cartoon depicting the conditions of Rio de Janeiro’s streets in 1885, 38 Satirical depiction of emancipation ceremony, 82 Official portrait of first emancipation ceremony, 82 Political cartoon depicting the sale and potential separation of slave families in Brazil in 1885, 102 Image depicting benefit concert of Nadina Bulicioff in Rio de Janeiro, August 1886, 113 Image depicting the slaves Joana and Eduarda, owned by D. Francisca de Castro, 119 Image of “Slavery,” painted as an enslaved woman being transported through the countryside, 136 Cartoon depicting black market women’s role in a strike at Rio de Janeiro’s marketplace, October 1885, 172 Cartoon depicting the forcible shaving of the heads of suspected fugitive slaves, Rio de Janeiro, November 1885, 175 ...