“Triple use” of black female bodies: gender, race, abuse and slavery – Rio de Janeiro, 19th century

Abstract

In this article, we present reflections about the different meanings developed in the slave society of the 19th century, about African women and their descendants, and the daily coexistence with the triple meaning of their bodies and their identities, since they are products, producers and reproducers of and for the slave society of Rio de Janeiro. In this sense, small daily margins were important for actions, choices and agencies. In the daily struggle, those women re-signified bonds of solidarity, friendship and family, under the impact of violence on their bodies – physical, moral and psychological –, not without resistance. To this end, we mobilized the categories of gender, race and slavery to analyze doctors’ and farmers’ manuals, post-mortem inventories, medical theses and newspapers, as we scrutinized the enslaved female body and the different forms of violence imposed on it.