£25.00
Second-Class Daughters
Black Brazilian Women and Informal Adoption as Modern Slavery
Brazil's Historical and Social Context
A legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, Brazil is home to the largest number of African descendants outside Africa and the greatest number of domestic workers in the world.
Research and Focus
Drawing on ten years of interviews and ethnographic research, the author examines the lives of marginalized informal domestic workers who are called adopted daughters but who live in slave-like conditions in the homes of their adoptive families.
Account of Exploitation and Family Dynamics
She traces a nuanced and, at times, disturbing account of how adopted daughters, who are trapped in a system of racial, gender, and class oppression, live with the coexistence of extreme forms of exploitation and seemingly loving familial interactions and affective relationships.
Humanity and Navigation of Structural Constraints
Highlighting the humanity of her respondents, Hordge-Freeman examines how filhas de criação (raised daughters) navigate the realities of their structural constraints and in the context of pervasive norms of morality, gratitude, and kinship.
Concluding Insights
In all, the author clarifies the link between contemporary and colonial forms of exploitation, while highlighting the resistance and agency of informal domestic workers.
