Born in 1825 in São Luís do Maranhão, daughter of the former slave, Leonor Felipe dos Reis. At the age of 22, in the city of Guimarães, Maranhão state, she was selected for a government job as a teacher of young children.

Her book, Úrsula (1859), was the first novel written by a woman in Brazil and to deal with the abolitionist theme. In the story, a slave owner is the villain – a sadist and torturer. Furthermore, it criticises the patriarchy, incapable of giving women a voice in the narrative. It also proposes Africa as a space of civilization and freedom in the face of a savage and tyrannical Europe. For this reason, she is considered a precursor of Africanism in literature.

In 2020, Tagus Press, affiliated with the University of Massachusetts (USA), launched the book, Ursula, in English. The translation should increase the author’s international recognition, in addition to facilitating reflections and studies among researchers from other languages.

Her second book was the feuilleton, Gupeva (1860), in which she deals with the place of the Indigenous peoples in Brazilian society. Firmina still acted in the intellectual circles of the time, defending the abolitionist cause. She collaborated with newspapers and magazines with articles, stories and even songs, such as her “Hino à liberação dos escravos”

In 1880, she founded the first mixed teaching literacy school (for boys and girls) in the country, in Maçaricó, Maranhão state. The project was not well received, and Firmina was forced to close the school two and a half years later. In the short time she taught, she educated energetically but calmly, without corporal punishment (common at the time) and without an imposing method.

She died blind in 1917 at the age of 95, at Mariazinha’s house, a former slave who welcomed her in her final years. Firmina left her legacy by acting in defence of the most exploited groups in Brazil: women, black men and women, and indigenous people.