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Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Sandra Lauderdale Graham, Caetana Says No: Women's Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society (New York: Cambridge University Press 2002)

CAETANA SAYS NO: Women's Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society is a well-written and compelling study that makes extensive use of civil and ecclesiastical sources. The most important contribution of Sandra Lauderdale Graham's work is its exemplification of the complexities of the personal interactions between masters and slaves. In addition the book also shows that in a 19th-century patriarchal society, women could contest the authority of powerful males, as they were not merely powerless victims of oppression.

The book consists of the narratives of two women in the coffee plantation zone of the Parayba Valley in Southeastern Brazil. One, Caetana, was a house slave who was forced by her master, Luis Mariano de Tolosa, to marry another slave but who refused to consummate the marriage and who pressured her master to try to annul the matrimony.

Caetana's story survived because of the annulment petition that documented her request. However, this document lacked detailed information about some of the issues surrounding her case. For instance, it is unclear why Tolosa forced her to marry. As Graham points out, perhaps it was a consequence of the fact that she was his house slave and he, being a widower, was concerned by what people would say about him having a young woman living in his house. It is also possible that he was trying to protect Caetana from his three sons who could be tempted to have their first sexual experiments with a single slave girl. Another possible reason could be that Tolosa was concerned that a single slave woman would become a bad influence on his daughters. Needless to say, female choice in the matter of sexuality was denied, since the role of most women was to marry and to raise a family.

It is also unclear why Caetana refused to consummate the marriage. As Graham states, Tolosa gave her "ample liberty to choose one of the other unmarried slaves who served the house ... She discounted the offer, understanding it was all the same. She would have to marry one man or another." (57) She was fighting for her right to be single. She did not fight against slavery, but she refused to accept an imposed marriage. Even though Tolosa was a man of immense power, he eventually agreed.

It is undeniable that Caetana had a special position in his plantation. She had been his wife's personal slave and, after she died, Caetana was the woman in charge of his house and children. Still, in a simplistic view of slavery, we would see a dominant master and submissive slaves who do not dare to confront their master's decisions. What Graham shows us is that this was not always the situation. As she states, "It would be easy to dismiss Tolosa as the powerful master and Caetana as the helpless slave, but that gloss does not work. He did order her to marry, and she knew she had to obey; but she struggled, and he relented." (4)

An other myth that Graham dismisses is that of slaves being denied a family life and the right to marry. Caetana's marriage was a religious ceremony with the blessings of the Catholic Church. It is true that she and her husband were part of the elite group of slaves in Tolosa's plantation, and that they could have enjoyed special rights. Still, there were significant numbers of married slaves in that region of Brazil.

In the second story, Graham presents a woman, Inácia Delfina Werneck, from a powerful plantation family who never married, never had access to literacy, and because of that was dependent on literate males to run the property she inherited from her father. This story reinforces but also challenges assumptions of a patriarchal society. It reinforces the view of a society that denied women the right to an education. Yet, it also shows a woman who did not get married and who owned land and slaves. We do not know why Inácia remained single. But in doing so, she did not fulfil the role of a woman of the élite to procreate and to bring up male heirs. Her sister went even further. Not only did she never marry but she also raised her illegitimate son at her home. "Her sister provides an unexpected contrast as the unmarried mother to a natural son ... Just as surprising, no lasting scandal impaired her son's public success in local politics or as a landowner." (157)

Another unusual aspect of Inácia's life was that she took the decision to nominate five of her house slaves as her heirs. They were granted their freedom, the ownership of eight other slaves, and Inácia's coffee estate. The literate males around her accepted her demand. Unfortunately, due to the coffee crisis of the late 19th century, her estate was in deep financial trouble and the slaves ended up inheriting a long legal battle in the Brazilian courts, as they were considered responsible for the debts of their former master.

Inácia's story also portrays the ambiguous relationship of masters and slaves who bond without affecting the continuing power of the former over the latter. The two may have been as close to each other as family members but they were still bonded by force, and the friendship co-existed with that relationship.

The major weakness of the book is the lack of a clear argument linking the two stories. Also, the book could have been improved if a theoretical analysis of gender and slavery had been added to the introduction. In this way, it would have made it easier for readers to compare and contrast these experiences of 19th century-Brazil with those of other slave societies. Because of the way that the stories are presented, readers may perceive them to be two narrow cases that contribute little to a better understanding of slavery and gender relations in the Americas.

Yet, overall the book is a relevant contribution to the study of 19th-century Brazilian society, highlighting how complex slave and patriarchal societies were. As Graham states, narratives are worth "telling because they make of slavery and of patriarchy not abstract systems of labor or power ... Their stories reveal how personal, enduring, and complex the ties could be, and how unfamiliar, unexpected outcomes have the power to shift perceptions, if only slightly." (158)


Rosana Barbosa Saint Mary's University

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