Abstract
In 1830, Maria da Conceição, a resident of the village of Nossa Senhora da Ajuda de Jaguaripe, in the southern region of the Bahia cove, was a victim of the illegal practice of ‘reducing free people to slavery.’ In the long period between1830 and1876, she lived as anillegal slave. In Brazil, the legislation in effect at the time could help the aforesaid ‘slave’ tryto gain her freedom back, but the path she took to Justice, in whichshe had to prove her status as a free woman, took a long and arduous 46 years. This story will be told based on the action of freedom civil action moved by her in 1876. The data located in this civil action and the crossing of other sources were the guidelines to understand the situations lived by this woman who, going against a slave society marked by gender hierarchy, was able to achieve her goals, thus revealing that in several situations the result of power relations has not always been negative for women. Her life story has also made it possible to bring to light many other stories of the individual swho were part of the universe in which this character lived.
Keywords:
Slavery; Bahia cove; Women’s history