The Story of Pata Seca: The Enslaved Man Forced to Father Over 200 Hundreds Children

The Story of Pata Seca: The Enslaved Man Forced to Father Over 200 Hundreds Children.

In the brutal world of 19th-century Brazilian slavery, the story of one man stands out for its particular cruelty. His name was Roque José Florêncio, but he was known by a nickname that would outlive him: Pata Seca, or “Dry Paw.”

Pata Seca was an enslaved man living in the state of São Paulo. What made him different, in the eyes of his owners, was his extraordinary height. He stood an estimated 2.18 meters tall, or about seven feet and two inches. Instead of being valued as a person, he was treated as an asset. His owners saw his size and strength and decided to use him as a “breeding bull,” a term used for enslaved men forced to father children who would also be born into slavery.

The goal was simple and brutal: to produce more enslaved workers at no extra cost. According to local accounts and historical legend, this grim role led Pata Seca to father an estimated 200 to 300 children.

When slavery was finally abolished in Brazil in 1888, Pata Seca’s life changed. He was given a small piece of land by the family that had once owned him. There, he was able to build a life of his own choosing. He married and had nine more children, this time within a family he helped create.

The legends surrounding Pata Seca extend to his age. It is said that he lived to be 130 years old, though this is difficult to verify. What is certain is that his death drew a massive crowd, with thousands of people attending his funeral.

His presence is still felt in the region today. Locals in the city of Rio Claro claim that a significant portion of the town’s population—some say as many as one in three residents—are descendants of the man they call Pata Seca. His story is a painful chapter of history, but for his many descendants, it is also a story of survival and an unbreakable lineage that emerged from one of humanity’s darkest institutions.