The Freedom of the Sacrament of Marriage for the Enslaved and the Practice of Purchasing a Man to Marry in Eighteenth-Century Colonial Brazil (Mariana, Minas Gerais)

• Grant number: 24/17673-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Aldair Carlos Rodrigues
• Grantee: Natã Freitas
• Supervisor: Charlotte de Castelnau L'Estoile
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris 4), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/13876-3 - Creating relationships: Africans between marriage and slavery in the 18th century Mariana (1720-1770), BP.MS

Abstract

This project analyzes the freed African women who purchased men to marry in the mid-eighteenth-century Mariana, Minas Gerais, an important religious and slaveholding center in colonial Brazil. By combining the extensive repertoire of documents collected from the archives of Minas Gerais with an examination of the institutional mechanisms, moral theology and canon law governing marriages involving enslaved people, the study aims to explore the complex interaction between norms and practices in a Christian slave society. The research also seeks to uncover the strategies and experiences of those involved in these marital arrangements, deepening our understanding of the practice of buying a husband and the intersections between marriage, freedom and slavery.