11/14/2025
The mistress threw the slave's son to the dogs, but the revenge made her bitterly regret it.
Joana firmly held Dona Mariana's head by her blonde hair, forcing the dark, bitter liquid down her throat. The lady's blue eyes bulged with terror and agony, understanding too late. "Drink, madam," Joana whispered, her voice carrying an emotional venom as potent as the infusion of rotten roots that Josefa, the cook, had prepared. "Drink the poisoned milk of the vengeance you denied my son."
Joana's heart no longer felt fear. It beat only to the rhythm of unfathomable grief and a rage that burned like sacred fire.
Just three days earlier, that same rage had been born. Driven by delirious jealousy and rumors of African witchcraft, Dona Mariana had snatched little Benedito, just eight months old, from Joana's arms while she was breastfeeding him. Ignoring the desperate pleas of the only mother the baby knew, Mariana, her eyes bloodshot with hatred, threw the innocent child directly into the jaws of her three hungry Spanish mastiffs.
The dogs devoured Benedito's tender flesh in seconds that felt like an eternity to Joana. Her heart shattered.
Now, in the dark kitchen, Joana watched her work. From the lit window of the big house, she could see dancing shadows. She heard the mistress's sharp screams as she fell to her knees, her body convulsing violently. Yellowish pus and black blood oozed from her mouth, nose, and ears. Joana methodically wiped her hands on the apron, now soiled with blood and bile. Benedito was avenged.
But revenge came at an immediate price. The heavy footsteps of Thomás, the feared overseer, approached along the stone corridor.
With the kitchen knife still in her hand, Joana knew there was no time to hesitate. She slipped out the side door into the darkness of the herb garden. From the shadows emerged Madalena, her eyes shining with unshed tears and a fierce determination. She had seen everything.
"Joana, we have to go now," she whispered urgently. "Josefa has alerted the others in the senzala (slave quarters). They are waiting for us at the Santa Efigênia chapel."
The two women ran under the protective shroud of night, just as the alarm drums began to beat in the big house. The hunt had begun.
In the abandoned chapel, hidden in the woods, they found Josefa, the young Lúcia, and seven other women. All were faces marked by suffering, mothers who had lost children, wives who had lost husbands to the lash.
The group debated their future. Flee to a quilombo (runaway slave settlement) in the mountains, five days away? Or stay and fight?
"I can't hide like a rat anymore," Lúcia said, her voice trembling but firm. "I lost my husband when he tried to run away. If we are going to die, I prefer to die fighting and taking some of those demons to hell with me."
To be continued...