“African Women of Modest Means”

Freedwomen, Labor, and Wealth

Abstract

This article examines how African women entered the urban labor market in nineteenth-century Salvador. It begins with a brief historiographical overview regarding the role of enslaved workers—both men and women—as historical agents. Subsequently, the article analyzes the estates of women who died intestate. The primary sources used for this analysis are the official records of asset seizure and inventory drawn up following these women's deaths. The findings demonstrate that, despite the absence of wills, it is possible to identify African women who amassed modest wealth through their labor. The text also aims to contribute to an understanding of African women's participation in the world of work—women connected by their status as laborers, Africans, and freed individuals, whose lives were partially revealed upon death through State interventions to inventory their assets. In the context analyzed, death serves as the connecting thread for the stories examined herein.