The devil's invention
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Captiveiro é má sina; não foi Deos que botou no mundo semelhante cousa, não; foi invenção do diabo.
'Captivity is an evil fate; it was not God who put such a thing in the world, no — it was the devil's invention.'
This is the theological core of the chapter, and it is radical for 1875: slavery is not God's order but the devil's invention. In a society that leaned on scripture to justify bondage, an old enslaved woman flatly denies heaven any part in it. Guimarães puts the abolitionist argument where it is least deniable — in the mouth of the enslaved.
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A Escrava Isaura 7.35 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/escravaisaura/7.35/