![]() Ana Jansen and the Haunted Carriage of São Luís
Born in São Luís, Maranhão, a woman known as Ana Joaquina Jansen Pereira, known as Donana to her slaves, the daughter of Vicente Gomes de Lemos Albuquerque and Rosa Maria Jansen Müller, the latter the daughter of a bankrupt Dutch merchant. Ana Jansen was a prominent businesswoman, politician, and owner of numerous properties. It is worth noting that Ana Jansen's grandparents were descendants of a European noble class who arrived in São Luís, the capital of Maranhão and Grão-Pará.
Ana Jansen became pregnant at a young age, not claiming the father's birthright on the civil registry, the boy. It is known that for many months Ana Jansen hid the pregnancy from her family, only to be discovered and questioned about the alleged father. She refused to reveal who the child's father was, beyond her mother's rumors. At the insistence of her family, Ana Jansen's father expelled the minor from his home. Ana Jansen, dishonored, was no longer a virgin, a single mother of a newborn son in a neighbor's house.
Time passed, and Ana Jansen met the love of her life, Colonel Isidoro Rodrigues Pereira, from a notable and wealthy family in the Province of Maranhão. With the colonel, Ana Jansen had six children. However, she went from being a lover to being a wife, due to the death of the colonel's wife, charting new horizons in her life.
While alive, the colonel immediately provided a house for Ana Jansen to live in with her son, despite his prejudice against giving him a good education. However, Ana Jansen's conduct and all the obstacles plagued her private life. At that time, things improved when she became the colonel's faithful lover, which caused great uproar in local society. After the colonel's wife passed away, Ana Jansen married and lived with the wealthy colonel for only 15 years. It is true that after the colonel's death, Ana Jansen altered her social status as the richest widow in Maranhão, possessing extreme powers. She also owned extensive land, was a legitimate slave owner, and was a political leader. This drew the attention of several politicians and businesspeople as the Queen of Maranhão.
It is important to note that after Isidoro's death, Ana Jansen took over the Santo Antônio Farm, owned by the late colonel. In this way, she tripled her inherited wealth. She established herself as one of the largest cotton and sugarcane producers in the Empire, in addition to owning the largest number of slaves in the region. She exerted an enormous and powerful influence on the city's social, administrative, and political life. Ana Jansen negotiated business deals and maintained the city's water supply, despite the opposing party's accusations that Ana Jansen was preventing the government from providing its water with modern services.
Although a notable characteristic, Ana Jansen felt superior in the handling of business matters, so much so that she requested the title of baroness from King Dom Pedro II, but was denied by him. It is understood that Ana Jansen wanted to be the baroness of the Santo Antonio farm.
As is known, many of the Duke of Caxias' troops were supplied by Ana Jansen during the Balaiada War. An aristocrat who lived beyond her time, a true and beautiful woman. Due to the insatiable influence of society at the time, Donana knew how to tame women's eyes, ruining their husbands' lives.
In the 19th century, Donana Jansen, or Dona Ana Joaquina Jânsen Pereira, lived in São Luís do Maranhão. She committed the most violent and barbaric atrocities against countless slaves. Notably, Ana Jansen subjected them to all manner of torture, with many sessions ending in the death of the slaves. Thus, every kind of atrocities and brutality were nights and nights of great punishment.
There's no denying the existence of Anna Jansen, the Donana who influenced and offered great aspects of her society to the people who still exist today. On that dark Friday, it was midnight when a carriage carrying a beautiful woman was heard on Chalk Street, in the heart of the city, her dress dragging on the ground in that province.
A sailor friend, drinking cachaça at the bar, asked:
-Why do they call it Chalk Street?
The bar owner replied:
-Boy, they call it Chalk Street because it was steep and very slippery, with the slope made of clay blown down from the sky. That's why they built a staircase to eliminate this traffic problem.
The customer, holding a glass in his right hand, said:
-Roberto, take a look at my cane in the glass and I'll see what the hell that is?"
The man, the bar owner, replied:
-You can be careful."
As Roberto approached Rua do Giz, he noticed the beautiful carriage and asked, "Good morning, sir?
-Good morning, sir?" "No answer?
Roberto, nervous, asked again.
-Aren't you going to answer me? It looks like you don't even have a head. A severed head, and so do the horses'. If they don't answer, I'll ask who's in the carriage?
Roberto quickly walked up to the carriage and said:
-Aren't you ashamed of riding with a headless coachman?
The lady opened the door curtain and said:
-Show me some respect, you shameless, hopeless goat. What's the name of this street?
-It's the famous Rua do Giz, in the center of the National Capital of Reggae.
-I'm not interested in that street. Hurry to the lagoon.
It was approximately 1:00 in the morning, and the carriage and the coachman with his hat bowed in front made an unusual maneuver, heading for Lagoa da Jansen.
Roberto headed toward the bar and spoke to the bartender:
-Thanks, old man! I spoke to Ana Jansen. She got mad because this is Rua do Giz. And she left for some lagoon.
The attendant, smiling, says:
"Ana Jansen went to Jansen's Lagoon. A lagoon in Ponta da Areia that stinks terribly. It's the smelliest place I've ever heard of. Be careful, Roberto! You're lucky Ana Jansen didn't change your sex. Don't talk to me about that woman again, please.
Roberto drank the rest of the cachaça in his glass and left. Far from that place, word spread that a very evil woman was holding sessions for the people to watch, even unintentionally. Out of spite, she looked around at the slaves and said:
-Today, Pedro Simão will pay me. He will never again drive the cattle into the sugarcane and cotton thickets. Julião, a black man from the dirty escort, takes two thick sticks, two meters high. He buries them three meters apart and places a crossbar on top. He ties Pedro Simão's feet with the rope. After that, she throws the rope over the crossbar and pulls Black Pedro Simão upside down from the ground. Black Julinha brings the pot of boiling water with the embers. She makes a small fire and puts the pot to boil the water under the crossbar. Now, you bad Black woman, you black whore. You're going to walk among the roses in my garden.
The frightened slave immediately complains to Ana Jansen:
-Donana, what's this? Don't do this to Pedro Simão. He's innocent. I'm not that. I'm still a good Black slave. Don't mistreat me, godmother.
Ana Jansen angrily responds:
-Julinha, you're going to pay for what you're saying to me, you dirty, thieving, and false Black woman.
In a few moments, Ana Jansen shouts for her slave Humberto. Humberto responds and obeys Ana Jansen, who orders the following:
-Black Humberto, take my carriage now and bring it to where I am.
Taking charge, the slave Humberto arrived with the carriage before Ana Jansen and said:
-Here's your carriage, Donana.
She smiled and said:
-How beautiful my carriage is. I want you to tie the ungrateful Julinha's hands with a rope and pull the black woman four meters away by a rope tied to her hands. I want you to do it now, you bastard. And then, go for a walk around the farm with Julinha tied to the back and pulled by the carriage. Don't look back. If you do, you'll die in the burning embers of the fire. Take Julinha now and do everything I told you. Now, you filthy bastard.
Without delay, Julinha lamented, moaning for Ana Jansen, the following:
-Godmother! Godmother Donana, don't do this to me. Don't drag me in the carriage. Save me, Saint Benedict! Godmother of my heart, don't do this to me and be grateful. Please! Don't drag me across the ground.
With the order received, Humberto dragged Julinha through the sugarcane thickets, crossing ponds and streams at unprecedented speeds. The black woman's body rolled among the rocks and sand of the Santo Antonio farm. A soul ascended aimlessly, roughly as Donana killed her enemies.
After the carriage returned without Julinha's body, Ana Jansen continued the macabre ritual against the slave Pedro Simão. The metal pot was filled with boiling water, with enormous flames blazing between the three stones supporting the large pot. At this point, Pedro Simão, hanging upside down, moans, wails, and screams for help.
-My God, have mercy on me! I've done nothing wrong. Donana, save me! Free me from this punishment and pain. Oh my God! Help me! Comadre Matilde, help me! Speak to Donana. I give my soul to save myself.
Without further ado, Donana orders the rope to be pulled and Pedro Simão's head to be placed in the boiling pot, where it disappears into the hot water. Ana Jansen asks the lookouts, "This is just a joke from our night. If you want, make me angrier. I'll know how to give you a gentle answer."
It is known that on April 11, 1869, in São Luís, in the Province of Maranhão, Ana Joaquina Jansen Pereira, the richest and most beautiful woman in Maranhão, owner of thousands of slaves, Queen of Maranhão, powerful, a great businesswoman and politician, passed away. It is certain that her body was buried inside a church where there was a cemetery.
Erasmo Shallkytton
Enviado por Erasmo Shallkytton em 29/08/2025
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