Chica da Silva

Chica da Silva, whose romanticized version/character is known by the spelling Xica da Silva (Francisca da Silva de Oliveira, c. 1732-1796) was a Brazilian woman who became famous for becoming rich and powerful despite having been born into slavery. Her life has been a source of inspiration for many works in television, films, theater and literature. She is popularly known as the slave who became a queen.

Francisca da Silva de Oliveira was born in Vila do Príncipe (nowadays Serro), in the north of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. She lived mainly in Arraial do Tijuco (nowadays known as Diamantina) and was the daughter of a Portuguese man, Antônio Caetano de Sá and his black enslaved lover, Maria da Costa, who was probably from the Gulf of Guinea or Bahia. Francisca's first master was Sergeant Manuel Pires Sardinha, with whom she had two sons: Plácido Pires Sardinha and Simão Pires Sardinha, both of whom studied at the University of Coimbra, in Portugal. Francisca's second master was Priest Rolim (José da Silva Oliveira), who was forced to sell Chica to João Fernandes de Oliveira, a diamond mine owner and mining Governor of Arraial do Tijuco, one of the richest persons of Colonial Brazil.

Francisca and João soon started a romance and she was freed by him. Even though they were not officially married, the couple lived together for several years and had 13 children: Francisca de Paula (1755); João Fernandes (1756); Rita (1757); Joaquim (1759); Antonio Caetano (1761); Ana (1762); Helena (1763); Luiza (1764); Antônia (1765); Maria (1766); Quitéria Rita (1767); Mariana (1769); José Agostinho Fernandes (1770).

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