“An imaginary Possession”: Property Rights and Social Hierarchies in the Captaincy of Pernambuco. The Case of the Former Slave Serafina (17th and 18th Centuries)

Abstract

This article analyzes a complex conflict over the ownership of a sugar mill in the captaincy of Pernambuco, between the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. A captive of a “mestre de campo”, Serafina later married his master, Francisco Dias Ferreira. After her husband's death, she became the mistress of the sugar mill. However, the marriage was contested by the Ecclesiastical Court through a complaint by her mother-in-law, Clara das Neves, who was under pressure to pay a large debt to the Benedictines of the Monastery of São Bento da Paraíba, contracted by her husband during the Dutch domination. The dispute, analyzed through the action brought by the monastery for possession of the mill, published by the magazine of the Public Archive of the State of Pernambuco Jordão Emerenciano in 1946, makes it possible to question property rights in Portuguese-Brazilian society. It is understood that the complex social hierarchy of that society provided different access to the legal regime, especially in a context of dispute.