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[^0]:    11 For a discussion of liberated African women requesting emancipation, see Cavalheiro, 2015, chapter 4.  
The last receipt is dated 7 May 1844. For the sum of 20,000 réis, Miquelina was given to José Francisco Ribeiro by the Chief of Police without any notice from the Ministry of Justice or the Judge of Orphans. And she remained with him, living in Rio de Janeiro, at 32 Piolho Street, from where she filed her petition on 24 May 1844, only a few days after being transferred to Ribeiro's household. This petition was also denied on 19 August 1844. After that, the petition does not state where and with whom Miquelina lived and worked. However, newspaper accounts fill some of the gaps.  
On 30 June 1848, an escape announcement was placed in the Jornal do Commércio, stating that Miquelina had fled her workplace. The announcement also stated that she might have escaped to Santa Ana de Niterói, a neighbouring city, across the bay from Rio de Janeiro. ${ }^{12}$ Four years after beginning her quest for freedom within the judicial system and failing in the process, Miquelina decided to escape to pursue her freedom. It should be noted that, in 1848, Miquelina was completing 13 years under guardianship. The end of her time was near and yet she decided to escape. The reasons are not mentioned in the small space of the newspaper announcement. However, historiography points out that the transfer from one employer to another could have been a strategy to try to hold the services of Africans under employers' control. As shown above, Miquelina already feared that possibility since she was treated as a slave. Maybe she also realized that the end of the period of 14 years might not mean emancipation for her.