Chica da Silva, born enslaved, made a will naming 14 children as heirs and divided enslaved people among them

Francisca da Silva was born enslaved near Serro about 1732, daughter of an enslaved African woman, Maria da Costa, and a Portuguese man. Her first owner, the physician Manuel Pires Sardinha, fathered her son Simão. In 1753 the diamond contractor João Fernandes de Oliveira bought her, and he freed her the next year. They lived together unmarried for about 15 years and had 13 children. In 1770 he left for Portugal to claim property under his father's will, taking their sons. On 12 November 1770, at the Macaúbas convent, she had her will written. Sixteen days later, on 28 November, João Fernandes made his own will in Vila Rica recognising all their children. Hers named 14 natural children as heirs. Most of her estate was enslaved people, with jewels, gold, diamond pieces and houses, and heirs could take their shares in people. Simão received a house on Rua do Rosário. Her mother received 300 oitavas of gold and the enslaved woman Quitéria. Historian Júnia Ferreira Furtado counted at least 104 enslaved people owned by Chica and found no record that she freed any. She was buried, as she asked, in the church of the Third Order of São Francisco, a church used mainly by wealthy white residents. The will was found in the Serro courthouse registry in the mid-1980s, kept for years in a notary's home safe, and is now preserved by the memory office of the Minas Gerais court (Mejud/TJMG).