Life after death

Widows and propriety in the main city of the viceroyalty (Rio de Janeiro, c.1763 – c.1808)

Abstract

In the Eighteenth century, the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro was part of the Atlantic Portuguese trade. The economy moved from the North onto the South of Brazilian territory, and the “frotas” from Africa had great development. At this time, the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, capital city of the captaincy of Rio, became the main city of the viceroyalty. Sugar cane plantations spread over the suburbs (“recôncavos”) of the captaincy and onto the north. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the strategies by which widows were able to survive in the colonial society. The sources allow us to observe in the Colonial Old Regime the economic activities managed by widows, such as slave trade, products sale, local business, real estate requests (“Sesmaria”), every day life market commerce, as well as their children guardianship. These women action went far beyond the traditional gender roles, crossing the borderlines of the sugar plantations and trade. Widows were part of the Old Regime world; they were part of this environment where death was awaiting at the corner, as one of the consequence of diseases, wars or the unknown on the new territories. Being a widow meant to take care of children and administer husbands’ business. Nevertheless, many sources had shown the participation of many wives on husbands’ businesses since they were living together. As a consequence, the wives’ ability to manage the couple industries was witnessed by the husbands on their wills at the very moment when they wrote their last wishes.