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Rufina: A Slave-owning Female Slave in Pernambuco, 1853-1862

ABSTRACT

The fragments of life we have gathered about Rufina will help to better understand issues that have been little studied by historiography. In this article, two points served as a conduit for our analysis: the possession of slaves by slaves, and the notion of ownership rights that slaves and freed slaves both had. Therefore, our main objective is to analyze, through fragments of Rufina’s life, her insertion in the world of freedom, seeking to understand the construction of social hierarchies within the slave properties, as well as the notion of property rights she inherited from slavery. We also discuss the conditions that allowed her social rise whilst still in captivity, and the moment when she formed her understanding of ownership, based on customs practiced on the lands run by the Benedictine monks.

Keywords:
slave-owning slaves; freed slaves; Benedictine monks

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