Emancipatory Narratives & Enslaved Motherhood: Bahia, Brazil, 1830-1888

"This book goes back to the same region where the slave rebellion took place in 1835. It’s by a British historian, Jane-Marie Collins, who worked in Bahia and it shows how enslaved women who were mothers used petitions to demand their own freedom and how motherhood played a role in the discourse that they developed. Even though it is an academic book, this book is important because it brings to light the importance of enslaved women in this region. Most of the books that deal with enslaved women focus on the region of Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo whereas she is focusing on Bahia. Her work intersects with the work of other historians who worked on enslaved women, but she is looking at an important region, and showing how motherhood mattered to enslaved women in Brazil, in particular in Bahia."