Gama was born in 1830, to a Portuguese fidalgo who lost all his fortune with gambling, and Luísa Mahin (also spelled Maheu), a young woman provenient of what is now the city of Elmina, in Ghana. She was famous for getting herself involved in many rebellions, such as the 1835 Malê Revolt and the Sabinada.[citation needed] In 1840, when Gama was 10 years old, his father sold him illegally, allegedly because of debts. Gama was bought by an alférez named Antônio Pereira Cardoso. Cardoso would try to sell him once more, but no one would buy Gama, since he was provenient from Bahia, and Bahian slaves had the fame of being runaways. Cardoso then decided to use Gama as a housekeeper in his farm in the city of Lorena. In 1847, a student named Antônio Rodrigues de Araújo would host on Cardoso's house. He and Gama developed a strong friendship, and Araújo would teach Gama how to read and write. Learning then about the illegality of his condition, Gama fled to São Paulo, and would study Law at the Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo, but he did not finish the course. During later life, he would work as a rábula, that is, a non-graduated lawyer that obtains permission of the government to follow career. During the 1860s he became a journalist, collaborating with Angelo Agostini in Ipiranga, Coroaci and O Polichileno. He founded the journal Radical Paulistano in 1869 alongside Ruy Barbosa. He also helped to create the Republican Party of São Paulo in 1873. Gama had freed more than one thousand slaves in São Paulo, before his death in 1882, victimated by diabetes.