Manumission and Ethnicity in Urban Slavery: Salvador, Brazil, 1808–1888

Abstract

R A N CIS C O, an African-born slave living in the city of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, obtained his carta de alforria (letter of liberty) on May 14, 1852. His African origin or nation (naSao) was Nago. For his own freedom, Francisco paid the equivalent of seven hundred thousand reis (seven hundred milreis), the price his owner had paid to his former owner. But Francisco did not pay cash; rather he purchased his freedom by substituting another male slave called Joao whom he, Francisco, owned. Joao was also Nago and subsequently took Francisco's place working on a small boat known as an alvarenga, a lighter that ferried goods between ship and shore.' Francisco's letter of liberty does not tell how he accumulated enough money to purchase Joao, or how Francisco had come to own his own slave, albeit temporarily, presumably with the permission of his owner. All it reveals is that Francisco, employed in an urban occupation, possibly for many years, negotiated with his owner to arrive at a mutually agreeable price for Joao, a price equivalent to what the owner was demanding for