An exploration of women's involvement in the Latin American Wars of Independence

Maria Clemência da Silveira Sampaio

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: White

Events:

Connections:

Biography:
Maria Clemência da Silveira Sampaio was born in Rio Grande in 1789 to Maurício Inácio da Silveira, a descendant of Azorean immigrants, and Mariana Joaquina de Sampaio, from Florianópolis, Santa Catarina (Muzart, 111). Her patriotic poem called Versos heróicos was declaimed aloud by its author at a public ball held in São Pedro do Rio Grande on 12 October 1822 to honor the acclamation of Pedro I as constitutional Emperor of the newly independent Brazil (Moreira, 19-21). It subsequently came into print in 1823 with the Imprensa Nacional making Sampaio the first published woman poet in Rio Grande do Sul. The poem is directed to the new Empress by the women of Rio Grande do Sul, and it works mainly as a “ufanista” hymn of praise to the natural wealth and beauty of Sampaio’s native ‘pátria’ Rio Grande do Sul. In 1847 she went on to publish her only other known work “Saudosa Expressão da Pátria” in the newspaper O Rio-Grandense (Moreira, 15).

Little is known of Sampaio’s life, but recent research based on the finding of her will and inventory of goods, recently reprinted in Uma Voz ao Sul (Moreira, 99-110) does show that she died single and well-off, that she was highly religious and that she was, within her context, relatively socially aware as she freed her domestic slaves and their children.

Sampaio died in 1862.

References:

Muzart, Zahidé Lupinacci (editor). (2000) Escritoras Brasileiras do Século XIX
Davies, Catherine, Brewster, Claire and Owen, Hilary (2006) South American Independence. Gender, Politics, Text
Flores, Hilda Agnes Hübner (1989) Maria Clemência da Silveira Sampaio
Moreira, Maria Eunice (2003) Uma Voz ao Sul. Os Versos de Maria Clemência da Silveira Sampaio