Dislocations
This woman, a shipmate of Domingos Álvares, was tortured to the point of confession to making a pact with the Devil.
Who is Luzia da Silva? (157)
Following the logic of purgatory, this punishment means one cannot leave the district to which one is confined.
What is exile? (186)
After his exile, Domingos Álvares always asked for this in addition to payment as part of his healing ceremony.
What are a coin and a chicken? (194)
This was likely Domingos Álvares' ultimate fate.
What is death on the way to Bragança?
Domingos Álvares omitted this detail from his autobiography during his interrogation.
What is his freedman status? (165)
During his Inquisition interrogation, Domingos Álvares insisted that his healing methods derived from this source.
What are natural powers? (170-171)
According to Portuguese legend, these people guarded buried treasures and could take the form of giant snakes.
Who are Islamic Moors? (202)
This metaphor is used by James H. Sweet to describe the broad experiences of enslaved Africans as well as historians trying to recover their past.
What is "losing sight"? (223)
According to one contemporary observer, this percentage of the population of 1770s Lisbon was African or African-descended.
What is 1/5? (159)
A refraction of Portuguese assumptions about the redemptive power of God through colonialism and slavery.
What is African malevolence? (177)
This anthropomorphic figure was not only a doll, but also designed to represent different attributes of suffering.
What is a Bochio? (196)
This was Domingos Álvares' incentive for opposition to empire, slavery, and mercantilism.
What is reconstituting the "self" through the collective power of ancestors and kin? (231)