| Summary: | The purpose of this article is to discuss slavery, resistance and justice in colonial Brazil from the trajectory of enslaved Maria de Jesus and her family, highlighting the peculiarities of slavery in properties belonging to a religious congregation: the Order of Saint Benedict. Maria used justice and her complex ways to achieve her freedom goals, leaving her former owners perplexed by her "boldness". The monks, linked in the eighteenth century to the Portuguese congregation, were able to build an ingenious, efficient and highly institutionalized paternalistic system. Breaking away from this powerful institution earned Maria “qualifications” typical of an Ancien Régime society, with her name being associated with cheating, cunning and lying.
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