"A distinguished piece of new-style urban history, full of vivid detail. Dias writes with sympathy and perception about ordinary women and their struggle to survive."--Peter Burke, Cambridge University This important new work is a study of the everyday lives of the inhabitants of Sao Paulo in the nineteenth century. Full of vivid detail, the book concentrates on the lives of working women--black, white, Indian, mulatta, free, freed, and slaves, and their struggles to survive. Drawing on official statistics, and on the accounts of travelers and judicial records, the author paints a lively...