Way of piedade, ways of devolution: the brotherhoods of blacks in the Vale do Paraíba - the Nineteenth Century

• Grant number: 12/50907-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants - Publications - Books published in Brazil
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: March 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Cortez Wissenbach
• Grantee: Maria Cristina Cortez Wissenbach
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The religious brotherhoods constituted by so-called "black men", have been objects of research for some time. Systematic studies show that existed in all provinces of Brazil and that, despite the watchful eye of power ecclesiastical and civil authorities, could become, in the interstices of slave society, “sui generis” in areas of organization and sociability, core binders African, creoles and mulatos, through which slaves and freedmen sedimentary identities constructed in the context of the diaspora. The historiography on the phenomenon of Brazilian congregation is vast and offers important panel about the historical context in which the black brotherhoods could emerge. However, in general the existence in this research include profile eminently urban areas, relatively distant from large areas of plantation. Accordingly, relying on the fact that there are few studies about the striking black brotherhoods formed in rural settings, in which proliferated widely, we intend to analyze them in the nineteenth century in the Vale do Paraíba region, with predominantly rural characteristics and expressive captive population, the result of the expansion of the coffee economy. (AU)