Black Women and Mothers

social mobility and inheritance strategies in Minas Gerais during the second half of the eighteenth century

Abstract

Through a critical examination of the possibilities of social improvement
available to black women and their descendants, this article discusses
social mobility among Afro-descending people in the town and precincts
of Sabará, Minas Gerais, in the eighteenth century. Using various notarial
documents (inventories, wills, deeds of sale, etc.) and papers from the
municipal council of Sabará, this study investigates the types of economic
success enjoyed by women of Afro-descent and the limits to their social
mobility; the impact of inheritance procedures on the transfer of socioeconomic
resources from one generation to the next; and the strategies
black women employed to ensure that transmission of their property to
their children would translate into social advantages.