Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave of the Eighteenth Century

New Approaches to the Americas

by Júnia Ferreira Furtado

Júnia Ferreira Furtado offers a fascinating study of the world of a freed woman of color in a small Brazilian town where itinerant merchants, former slaves, Portuguese administrators, and concubines interact across social and cultural lines. The child of an African slave from the Costa da Mina and a Brazilian military nobleman of Portuguese descent, Chica da Silva won her freedom using social and matrimonial strategies. But the story of Chica da Silva is not merely the personal history of a woman, or the social history of a colonial Brazilian town. Rather, it provides a historical perspective on a woman’s agency, the cultural universe she inhabited, and the myths that were created around her in subsequent centuries, as Chica de Silva came to symbolize both an example of racial democracy and the stereotype of licentiousness and sensuality always attributed to the black or mulatta female in the Brazilian popular imagination.

Genres: History, Brazil, Nonfiction, Latin American History, Read For School, School

348 pages, Hardcover

First published November 17, 2008

Reviews

[Derrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was required to read this book for my Colonial Latin America class. I disliked this book so much that I ended up writing the essay for it after only reading the first three chapters; I scored an 80% on that essay. Out of guilt, I decided to finish the book over the past few months, and, boy, was it a drag. This could certainly be an educational book or even interesting book to some, but for me it was very boring. I believe I missed a major requirement for reading this book: being already familiar with Chia da Silva. If I had grown up knowing about the historical figure, this book would surely have been interesting to read to learn about the real Chica and how life during her time was. A separation of the woman from the myth. Unfortunately, my class didn’t even mention her except for a few slides and that was all I had to go from. It was cool to read about the economy of Minas Gerais, but I could have obtained that from a Wikipedia page. I feel bad giving this one star, but the book was such a drag and I disliked reading every single word. I unfortunately cannot name anything I learned from this book other than maybe Chica’s family drama about inheritances. Someone else who reviewed this mentioned that the translator of this text could be at fault for how boring this book was and that is likely true. Translation is a tricky ordeal and I do not blame the author for how horrendous read this was, but I can name very few books I enjoyed less than this. I’m sure this book was groundbreaking for fans of Chica da Silva, but I am simply not one of those people.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

That took FOREVER. Wow. It gets more than one star because the information is actually really interesting from a historical perspective, but this book was SO difficult to read. Part of that could be chalked up to translation difficulties, as the original text was in Portuguese, but even so, the translation was inconsistent (switching between "an historical" and "a historical" without rhyme or reason, for instance), and the book was full of incomplete sentences that led nowhere. Apart from that, the chronology was scattered at best, jumping from the 1750s to the 1730s and back again, or discussing the "end of the 1730s" and then adding "several years later in 1739..." leaving me utterly clueless as to when anything actually happened. And I felt like much of the book was filler and repetition, padding to make it book-length when the information could have been just as effectively and more readably conveyed in a shorter format.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ferreira Furtado's subject matter is entirely fascinating, and her research solid, but this is a weirdly constructed book which is very difficult to follow. Is it trying to be a general social history overview? A more focused analysis? It doesn't quite work as either. I was excited about this, and did learn from it, but ultimately less than I hoped to.

[Raquel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,75
Esse é o primeiro livro de História escrito por um historiador que eu leio e confesso que tô decepcionada. Eu na verdade resolvi ler ele porque peguei na biblioteca da faculdade antes da pandemia por causa de uma matéria e ele tá a mais de um ano no meu quarto pegando poeira. Eu tinha ouvido alguns veteranos falando bem do livro e a premissa me pareceu interessante então foi decepcionante perceber que ele é completamente maçante. O objeto de estudo aqui é realmente muito interessante e o que eu aprendi sobre ele é o que me faz dar essas estrelas, mas a escrita é péssima. Certo que esse é meu primeiro livro do tipo, mas a autora exagera demais em detalhes e em descrições de coisas que não acrescentam nada pro que ela quer falar. O tanto de nome, data e lugar que tem em cada parágrafo e como isso foge do assunto me desanimou totalmente e quebrou totalmente minha vontade de ler. O livro passa muito tempo não abordando a vida da Chica da Silva e eu até entendo a intenção de comparar a vivência dela com a de outras pessoas na mesma condição na época só que ela errou na mão em muitos momentos e o livro perdeu o fio da meada. Depois de passar um semestre inteiro lendo sobre como os historiadores precisam tornar sua escrita mais acessível e fluida para atingir pessoas fora da academia eu só consigo ver esse livro como um exemplo do que não fazer.

[Lisa]

This is an outstanding micro history of one lady who has been misinterpreted over the years. It’s a great description of daily life in the multi cultural boom town of the diamond fields in colonial Brazil. I liked the complexity given to those who are at the bottom of society—freed folks who enslaved others, women who found ways to move up socially and owned other people too. There were thick descriptions of material culture that I really appreciated and the role of the church and the Portuguese crown and how the economy functioned in the 18th century.

[bored reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have liked more info about Chica herself but that may be a difficult request considering the amount of sources

[JEAN-PHILIPPE PEROL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nesse livro, a historia e a lenda da Xica da Silva.
A lenda, a linda preta da Mina, cuja sensualidade enlouqueceu o contratador Joao Fernandes, causou sua ruina. A Xica da Silva que luta pela liberdade, participou da Inconfidencia e combatia a escravidao.
A historia. Uma paixao quasi burguesa entre uma mulata - de pai português- e um jovem protegido pelo Marquês de Pombal. Se nao casaram, foi quasi, e tiveram 13 filhos em 15 anos. Quando o Joao teve que voltar para Portugal, levou os filhos homens e cuidou da educaçao de todos. A Chica ficou em Diamantina, rica e cercada de muitos escravos. Nao participou da Inconfidencia mesmo se seu primeiro filho Simao era proximo dos revoltados.
Unica mulher brasileira do seculo XVIII com papel relevente, primeira mulata a ter uma posiçao social reconhecida na sociedade, ela é hoje, e para sempre, uma lenda.