Rita Cebola

Enslaved at first and later a freedwoman, Rita Gomes da Silva was nicknamed Rita Cebola (Rita Onion) because of her husband’s occupation. Lieutenant Colonel Inocêncio José da Costa, a Portuguese man, sold onions in an eye-catching house in the Lower City of Salvador. It was said that Rita was the intermediary of Inocêncio’s business, because she exercised great power over her husband. In his will, Inocêncio stated that his wife, when she married him, already “had a dwelling of two-story houses located on Gravatá street, on their own lots, free and unrestricted.” Inocêncio died in 1805. As for Rita Cebola, nothing more is known about her.