Weaving the Second Skin: Protection Against Evil Among the Valongo Slaves in Nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro

Abstract This article presents some of the archaeological finds made at the Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans arrived at Valongo, in the first half of the nineteenth century, to be sold in Brazil’s largest slave market next to the wharf. We analyze artifacts that were intended to protect their bodies against all kinds of misfortunes. Combined with scarifications and tattoos, these objects produced a second skin, highly social in nature, as shown by the abundant iconography depicting Rio’s urban slaves during this period. We argue that such artifacts configured both resistance to domination and negotiation of less-disadvantageous positions in the slaves’ harsh daily lives. Through the materiality of these objects—lost, forgotten, discarded, or hidden—we can glimpse the beliefs and strategies of Valongo slaves to cope with oppression, as well as their despair and their hopes.