The two Gertrudes

intersecting trajectories of black women and their struggles for freedom in nineteenth-century Brazil (1890 - 1891)

Abstract

This article investigates the actions of two Black women, both formerly enslaved and named Gertrudes, in the Brazilian Northeast at the end of the 19th century—a region with some of the highest manumission rates in the Americas. The research adopts an intersectional approach, emphasizing gender and race, and employs a qualitative method based on the analysis of primary sources such as criminal records, baptismal and death registers, and contemporary newspapers. Gertrudes de Jesus collaborated with the abolitionist movement by sheltering enslaved people escaping captivity. Gertrudes do Rosário was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping of her daughter, who was then under the control of a slaveholder—a deed interpreted as an act of rescue. By recovering these individual trajectories, the study reveals forms of Black female agency in response to the violences of the slave regime and in the post-Abolition context. The findings highlight the importance of including marginalized experiences in historiography, contributing to a broader and more nuanced narrative about the role of Black women in the struggle for freedom.