Black Women and Family Formation in Cacheu in the Context of the 17th-Century Transatlantic Slave Trade

In Cacheu, a city in West Africa, in the XVII century, free African women married European men and their locally born children were called “filhos da terra.” These locally born free women were called tangomãs or senhoras. In this presentation, I discuss the life of Crispina Peres, a prominent merchant from Cacheu, the constitution of her economic activities, her family, her husbands, children , enslaved people, and other households. Through the Inquisition trial against Crispina and other women from Cacheu in the 1670s, I will examine her household structures, properties, and succession arrangements in this region. My central argument is that marriage between tangomãsor senhoras with Europeans and their locally-born children from these unions provided more mobility for the free woman of Cacheu to run their businesses and strengthen their commercial houses without obligations to patriarchal regimes. However, the tangomãs or senhoras’ mobility made them vulnerable. As a result, segments of the community demonized wealthy African women, including the Portuguese, locally born authorities and commercial competitors, households, and the enslaved.