The article is based on interviews of mainly elderly people in various municipalities of north-eastern Maranhão in 1982. It documents the oral memory of slavery imposed on Afro-descendents and mixed-race individuals and communities. The testimonies provide crucial information about every day labour conditions, the violence endured by the enslaved, and the various ways of resistance. The text also analyses some key categories of this oral memory, such as the 'good' and the 'bad' owner dichotomy. It highlights certain peculiarities of the slavery of Africans and their descendents in the former province of Maranhão.
Slavery; memory; identity; story; oral history; resistance
