Both authors agree on the liberties possessed by inhabitants of Minas Gerais. First, they highlight the positive exchanges between masters and slaves. Higgins points out that slave masters forged alliances to prevent runaway slaves from being jailed. After giving slave masters their daily fixed sum of gold dust, slaves were allowed to keep the rest for themselves, allowing them to accumulate their own supply. Similarly, Kananoja tells the story of West Central African healer Mateus Monjolo who paid a fee to his master for each day he was away gaining an extra income from divination practices. However, the liberties of African healers were more limited than those of the miners. This is made clear by Kananoja as she points out that Africans with
