Tiodora's Letters: An Enslaved Woman's Fight for Family and Freedom
Marcelo D Salete, Marcelo D'Salete
9798875001710
Uitgeverij Fantagraphics
Engels
In the mid-19th century, millions of Africans were enslaved and
brought to Brazil. Among them was the real-life Teodora who, separated from her husband and her son, worked in the home of a priest
in São Paulo. Wishing to reconstruct the family ties lost during the
journey from Africa to Brazil and to achieve emancipation for herself
and her family, she gave Claro, a Black man who could read and write,
money to help her write letters: some addressed to her husband and
her son, whereabouts unknown, in the hopes that the letters would
find them and that they could achieve this quest together; and some
addressed to enslavers, intended to either help locate her family or
to persuade them to let her buy her freedom.
Inspired by this correspondence, Tiodora’s Letters is a rigorously
researched historical work, a compelling narrative based on her letters,
and masterfully drawn by D’Salete, who graphically recreates her struggle. In the 1860s, Benê, a fictional Black young man who likes Tiodora
because she was kind to him, takes it upon himself to seek Tiô’s family and
deliver the letters. He embarks on a dangerous and world-building journey
into the interior of Brazil and to the coffee plantations where they might
be. There are many wordless passages of heartbreaking horror, character beats, breathtaking drawings of nature, and much more. In Tiodora’s
Letters, D’Salete reconstructs a forgotten part of Brazil’s dark history of
slavery and pays tribute to the strength of a woman who fought for her
rights single-handedly. Includes educational and contextual material.
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