Maria Firmina dos Reis was born on the island of São Luís, in Maranhão, in October 1825 11 was registered as daughter of João Pedro Esteves Felipe and Leonor. Black, bastard, was a first cousin of the writer maranhense Francisco Sotero dos Reis by mother. In 1830, moved with his family to the village of São José de Guimarães, on the Mainland, municipality where lived part of your life at in house of a maternal aunt better situated economically. In 1847, she ran for Chair of Primary Instruction in this location and being approved, there even pursued the profession as a teacher of first letters, from 1847 to 1881, thus, the first teacher woman tenured civil servant of your State. Black bastard, faced the barrier of prejudice and published in 1859, the novel 'Úrsula', considered the first abolitionist novel of Brazil and one of the first written by a brazilian woman. In 1887, Maria Firmina also wrote a short story on the same topic, "the slave". In 1871, she published the collection of poems Cantos. Also collaborated with literary journals. In 1880, she founded a free school and mixed, for boys and girls, which caused scandal in the village of Maçaricó, in Guimarães. After all, the school had to be closed in less than three years. Maria dies at the age of 92 years, in the city of Guimarães, in day 11 of November of 1917. In 1975, she receives a tribute to José Nascimento de Morais Filho who publishes the first biography of the writer, Maria Firmina: fragmentos de uma vida.