Arranjos conjugais entre africanos libertos e escravizados: gênero e estratégias matrimoniais nas fronteiras entre a escravidão e a liberdade em Mariana, Minas Gerais – Brasil (século XVIII)

Abstract

Considering the couples whose relationship was crossed by conjugal and slave bonds, this article aims to investigate the mixed-status marriages celebrated in Mariana during the first half of the eighteenth-century. Marriage in this urban, religious and slave center in Minas Gerais will be approached from the cultural references of Africans and the specific influxes of the colonial universe, emphasizing their trajectories under the existing conditions and possibilities. Furthermore, the probable meanings of this type of union in a cultural context with distinct and unequal expectations for men and women and its impacts on the boundaries between slavery and freedom will be discussed.