Millie Gone to Brazil

Elaine Rocha’s book explores the nature of intimate partner violence against black women, using the stories of two black Barbadian women who were brutally murdered in the early part of the twentieth century — one in Barbados and one in Brazil. Her sensitive and incisive historical analysis locates these stories in the intersections between gender and labour history and provides a grim reminder that black women in the Americas are still subjected to such acts of violence today.

Dr. Alan Cobley

Emeritus Professor of History,

The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, Barbados

“Millie Gone to Brazil” is far more than a simple folk song. It hints at untold stories of how Barbadian women navigated the perils of life after slavery, unprotected against the threats of multiple forms of violence. Eliana Rocha skillfully pieces together sparse traces of two women’s deaths to reveal the courageous lives of those who stayed as well as those who went abroad. An important part of the history of all Bajans, and a refusal of the silences that continue to hide violence against Black women.

Dr. Kim D. Butler

Rutgers University