Escrava

Escrava is a Portuguese and Spanish noun meaning “female slave.” The word is the feminine form of escravo (slave), derived from the Latin escriptus, originally meaning “imprisoned” or “bound.” In historical contexts, escrava referred to women who were legally owned by another person, treated as property and deprived of personal freedom. The term appears in colonial legal codes and literature, illustrating gendered aspects of slavery in Iberian and Latin American societies.

During the transatlantic slave trade, many women were transported to the Americas, Brazil, and the Caribbean as escravas, where they faced enslavement in plantations, domestic service, and the economic exploitation associated with plantation agriculture. Their experiences are documented in slave narratives, estate records, and literary works such as Gil Vicente’s plays and the poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, which sometimes mention or allude to the condition of enslaved women.

In contemporary usage, escrava is rarely used in everyday speech but remains present in academic studies of slavery, gender studies, and postcolonial literature. It is also encountered in the names of cultural projects or institutions dedicated to preserving the memory of enslaved women, such as the Escrava Museum in Angola or the Escrava Penitence Museum in Brazil. The word serves as a linguistic reminder of the gendered realities of slavery across the Iberian and Portuguese-speaking world.