Family, Insurgencies and Transgressions

[Re]tracing the Memory and History of Luiz Gama in Bahia

Abstract

Poet, abolitionist and self-taught lawyer, Luiz Gama is one of the most celebrated figures of Afro-Brazilian history. His writings and professional life have inspired numerous scholarly works, but thus far, information about his childhood has been limited to what he provided in a letter written in 1880, two years before his death. The present paper, based on extensive archival research presents the first empirical data about Gama’s childhood in Bahia, in dialogue with the recollections given in his letter and narratives about him that arose after his death. The paper begins by examining the arrival in Brazil of his mother, the legendary Luiza Mahin, a victim of the ilegal slave trade. The second section analyzes his father’s family, tracing its roots to the town of Santo Amaro da Purificação and the island of Itaparica. In reconstructing Gama’s childhood in the City of Bahia during the 1830s, we look at the family’s physical proximity to insurgencies of the time, especially the Malê and Sabinada rebellions. We conclude by presenting evidence confirming Gama’s memories about his father’s involvement in gambling and the increasing debts that led him to sell off his property, finally reducing his own son to slavery in 1840. In addition to furnishing the first empirical basis for Gama’s recollections of his childhood in Bahia, the paper provides nuance and context to his memories, while also highlighting the unstable relationship between historical events and present-day narratives about the lives of legendary black leaders during the time of slavery.