ABSTRACT
In late 1872, as slavery took new directions in Brazil, vicar João Antônio da Silva Barriga baptized the innocent Crescência, a creole registered as a freeborn because of the Lei do Ventre Livre [Law of the Free Womb], which had been enacted the previous September 28. The little girl was the natural daughter to an African named Michelina and goddaughter to Bento and Thereza, who, like her mother, were the slaves of Donna Ignácia Antônia do Amaral Mattos. 1 Such a baptism entry exemplifies the different dimensions of the life of Africans and creoles during the last days of slavery in Brazil.
