Militiamen, barbers and slave-traders: Mina and Jeje Africans in a catholic brotherhood (Bahia, 1770-1830)

Los milicianos, barberos y traficantes en una hermandad católica de africanos minas y jejes (Bahia, 1770-1830)

Militants, barbiers et trafiquants dans une fraternité catholique d'Africains 'minas' et 'jejes' (Bahia, 1770-1830)

Abstracts

This article presents the profile of a group of Africans who belonged to the brotherhood Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção, housed in the chapel of Corpo Santo, in Salvador, between the last quarter of the 18^th century and the early 19th century. On the basis of a series of biographical sketches, the paper investigates the ethnic, familial, affective, professional and commercial bonds Africans maintained amongst themselves, and discusses what this sociability reveals about the role of the brotherhood as an institution.

freed Africans; Bahia; catholic brotherhood; Jeje; slave trade

En este artículo se presenta el perfil de algunos africanos que pertenecían a la hermandad de Bon Jesús de las Necesidades y la Redención, que se erigió en la capilla del Santísimo Cuerpo de Salvador, entre el último cuarto del siglo XVIII y principios del XIX. Con el análisis de una serie de bosquejos biográficos, el texto investiga cuáles son los lazos étnicos, de parentesco, afectivos, profesionales y comerciales entre esos africanos, y lo que esa sociabilidad nos informa acerca del papel de la hermandad como institución.

libertos africanos; Bahia; hermandad católica; jeje; comercio de esclavos

Cet article présente le profil de certains africains de la fraternité Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção, créée dans la chapelle Corpo Santo, à Salvador (BA), Brésil, dans la période comprise entre la fin du 18ème siècle et le début du 19ème. Sur la base de données biographiques, on demande quels liens ethniques, de parenté, affectifs, professionnels et commerciaux ces africains avaient maintenu entre eux, et ce que ces relations reflètent du rôle de la fraternité en tant qu'institution.

libérés africains; Bahia; fraternité catholique; jeje; trafic des esclaves

Este artigo apresenta o perfil de alguns africanos que pertenceram à irmandade do Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção, ereta na capela do Corpo Santo de Salvador, entre o último quartel do século XVIII e o início do XIX. A partir de uma série de esboços biográficos, o texto indaga quais laços étnicos, de parentesco, afetivos, profissionais e comerciais esses africanos mantinham entre si, e o que essa sociabilidade nos diz a respeito do papel da irmandade como instituição.

libertos africanos; Bahia; irmandade católica; jeje; tráfico de escravos

Within the historiography of the Lusophone Atlantic, black lay catholic brotherhoods have been long recognized as critical spaces for African sociability, especially in Portuguese America. The analysis of the statutes (compromissos) and, more rarely, the minutes, accounts and admission books of the brotherhoods provides detailed information regarding the distribution, history, social organization and administration of these institutions.¹ The literature on this subject, however, hardly allows identifying the individuals who composed these confraternities. This text presents the profile of a selected group of Africans who belonged to the Irmandade Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção (Brotherhood of the Good Jesus of the Necessities and Redemption, hereafter IBJNR), housed in the chapel of Corpo Santo (Holy Body), in Salvador, between the last quarter of the 18^th century and the early 19^th century. On the basis of a series of biographical sketches, the text investigates the ethnic, familial, affective, professional and commercial bonds these Africans maintained amongst themselves, and discusses what this sociability reveals about the role of the brotherhood as an institution.

Before that, however, it is necessary to make some considerations regarding the constitution of the association. The statutes of 1913, a revised version of the originals from 1775, informs that the IBJNR was initially founded as a "devotion", (that is, a fraternity without statutes) in 1752, "by black African (gegê) men". Only when it had its by-laws approved on May 30, 1775, it was elevated to the category of "brotherhood" .² The first mention of the year 1752 only appears in the 1913 statutes; therefore, the accuracy of this date should be taken with caution.³ However, the existence of a "devotion", prior to the institution as a brotherhood, and its transfer to the chapel of Corpo Santo in 1774 are facts corroborated by documents of the time.

On August 28, 1774, the "black gêge devotees" of Senhor Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção asked the administrators of the chapel and members of the São Pedro Gonçalves brotherhood to place the image of their devotion "on the altar of the glorious Saint Caetano". Moreover they intended to "once again erect their brotherhood; for that, they already had the necessary licenses". The expression "once again" suggests there had been a previous attempt, perhaps unsuccessful, and clearly shows that until that moment the image of the devotion was not present at the Corpo Santo chapel. The supplicants signed a document that implies the latent hierarchical tensions. Besides other obligations, such as monetary contributions for church expenses, the Africans recognized the members in the brotherhood of São Pedro Gonçalves as "landlords and administrators of this church, whom we should obey and respect", while under the penalty of expulsion they would be "denied the possibility of any right or position".⁴

The chapel of São Frei Pedro Gonçalves, popularly known as Corpo Santo (near the Lacerda elevator, at the corner of the Cairu square), was a former chapel of sailors, dedicated to Saint Telmo.⁵ According to the legend, the Spanish captain Pedro Gonçalves built the chapel as a payment for a promise made to the homonymous saint for saving him from a storm in the Bahía de Todos-os-Santos (Bay of All Saints). The construction probably started in 1694, and in 1714 the French traveler Amédée Frézier, , mentioned the chapel of "Cuerpo Sto for poor people, and the Conceçaon for the sailors". In the 1730s, there was a frustrated attempt to found a maritime hospital around it. Between 1738 and 1765, when the Conceição da Praia chapel was demolished in order to construct a new church, the Corpo Santo functioned as the head of the parish. The chapel went through successive reforms and today almost nothing remains of the original edifice.⁶ Up until the 1820s when the harbor was landfilled, the chapel was facing the pier, in the first sea line. This is why it was built facing back to the harbor, owing to the attempt to reduce the sea salt in the temple (Figure 1).

Figure 1
The church of Corpo Santo (in the red circle). Source: A View of the City of Bahia in the Brazil, South America (detail). Drawn on Stone by G. Scharf, from a Sketch by Edmund Patten, taken on the Water at a Distance of Half a Mile/Published by Edmund Patten in June 18, 1826/Printed by C. Hullmandel.

Historians writing about the IBJNR generally highlight the predominance of the Jeje ethnic group within the members of this congregation. This idea was first inferred by Silva Campos and Pierre Verger, based on the information that is present in the statutes of 1913, and was subsequently reproduced by several other authors.⁷ In the aforementioned document of 1774, the brothers are effectively referred to as "gêge blacks", but Chapter 12 in the original statutes, which was written in the following year, stipulated that only "the national blacks from the Mina Coast or Loanda will be addmitted as brothers, excluding from the congregation the Creoles of this city or any other part".⁸

That is, even though the brotherhood could be dominated by Jejes the participation of Africans from other ethnicities was also allowed. Even whites and mixed-race people could take part. The statute only emphasized the exclusion of Creoles, which led the prosecutor Antonio de Brito d'Assumpção to object. However, as argued by the head administrator of religious properties (provedor de Resíduos e Capelas), Joaquim José Coelho da Fonseca, the measure was not new and aimed at preventing conflicts and controversies between the blacks born in the country and those born overseas.⁹ The statutes were dispatched on October 4, 1775, and finally approved by the Council of Conscience and Order (Tribunal da Mesa da Consciência e Ordem), in Lisbon, on August 22, 1778, and by royal provision on September 12.

On the basis of information from an "old book of resolutions of the association", Silva Campos describes a complex sequence of ethnic and racial conflicts between Jejes, Creoles, mixed-race and white people inside the brotherhood.¹⁰ Unfortunately, this book could not be found; therefore, it was not possible to establish when these groups entered the brotherhood or the chronology of the conflicts that ensued throughout the 18^th and until the 20^thcentury. In the attempt to better understand the ethnic composition of the brotherhood, I resorted to the analysis of wills, post-mortem inventories and death records that mentioned the IBJNR, and put up a list of 96 brothers who passed away in the period between 1805 and 1855.¹¹ It is noteworthy that no evidence regarding the existence of the brotherhood was found from 1780 to 1805; therefore, there is a documentary "gap" that requires further research. However, some of the 96 identified brothers were among those who founded the association in the 1770s.

Even though the fraternity was dominated by jejes, the participation of Africans from other ethnicities was allowed. White people and "pardos" could also take part

The available sample confirms that for the period in question the IBJNR had an exclusively African membership. The list shows only one Brazilian, who was born in Camamu and was also affiliated to the brotherhood of Nossa Senhora do Terço, in the same church of Corpo Santo, which was composed of "pardos".¹² Besides that, 24% of the brothers are identified with generic categories, such as African Coast (13), Guinea Coast (3), Guinea Gentile (2), Africans (3), or not informed (2). In all these cases little can be said about their ethnic origin. The other 75% are divided between a majority of West Africans (68% of the total) and a minority of Central West Africans (7%), including four Angolas, one Benguela, and two from the East African Coast. The reference to the presence of people from Luanda mentioned in the statutes of 1775 can be read as reflecting a reality in the 18^th century, which changed in the 19^th century, or can be interpreted as a rhetorical formalism to minimize any partisan tone in the eyes of ecclesiastical authorities. However, the potential inclusion of Bantu people may hide more complex reasons, since several of the Minas and Jejes integrating the board of the IBJNR often traveled to Luanda and Benguela.

Among those from West Africa, 36 brothers (37% of the total) are identified as being Mina Coast (Mina nation or gentile from the Mina Coast), and I suppose most of them were probably Jejes, that is, Gbe-speaking people. Twenty-one individuals were positively identified as Jeje (22% of the sample), whereas other West African groups appear represented as only five Nagos, one Tapa, one Haussa, and one Cotocori. This data indicates the numerical importance of the Jeje, and such predominance becomes even more significant when we examine the composition of the brotherhood's board.¹³

It is not possible, however, to speak of a Jeje ethnic exclusiveness for any period whatsoever, since as already seen the brotherhood always included representatives of various African nations. Nonetheless, dividing the data from the years 1805-1830 and 1831-1855 suggests that ethnic diversity increased in the latter period. For instance, four of the five Nago and three of the four Angola belong to the second period. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the Jeje ethnic identity was not a prerequisite to enter the society, but rather functioned as an important facilitating element.

Another remarkable aspect is that in general Africans belonged to more than one brotherhood. This fact questions any characterization of the IBJNR as a closed corporate group, since its members could coordinate their common interests within this particular confraternity as well as others. However, in the first half of the 19^thcentury the IBJNR was one of the three most important African brotherhoods in the city. The two other most popular were the Rosário da Baixa de Sapateiros and São Benedito, in the convent of São Francisco, in which Jeje Africans also had expressive participation. The Rosário brotherhood, from the neighboring Conceição da Praia church, was also the predilection of the Corpo Santo brothers.¹⁴ Despite this multiplicity of options and circulation of Africans between multiple brotherhoods, what I will try to show in this paper is that, at certain times, the IBJNR seems to have aggregated a social network with distinct interests, in which the professional and mercantile logic may have prevailed over the ethnic or religious logic, when it comes to understand its associative dynamic.

As previously stated, this article proposes to go beyond quantitative statistics and aims towards a more precise approximation that illuminates the biographic profiles of these Africans and their social ties.. In the book containing the statutes of 1778, preserved in Salvador's Metropolitan Curia Archives, there are two lists of the members of the director board of the IBJNR. The first one figures in a printed declaration dated from April 13, 1776 in which the brothers accepted to be held accountable to the head administrator of religious properties (Provedoria dos Resíduos e Capelas), not to reelect the treasurer, nor to borrow money with interest. The second list appears in a hand-written oath dated May 8, 1779, on the last page of the same book. I also found in the archive of the Conceição da Praia church, the accounts report from 1776 to 1777, prepared by the treasurer José Machado Godinho.¹⁵ The names and signatures in these documents are given in Table 1.

Table 1
Board Members from the Brotherhood of Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção, 1776-1779.

	April 13, 1776	1776–1777	May 8, 1779
President	Felix Xavier Duarte*	Francisco Nunes de Moraes	João Nunes*
Scriveners	Antonio José de Castro	José da Penha Ferreira	Capelão Antonio Siqueira Torres
Treasurer	João Nunes*	José Machado Godinho	–
Procurator	José Veríssimo da Silva Alexandre Pensa	Ignácio Xavier Ventura Mendes	D. José Álvares da Cunha –
Consultant	Caetano Antonio Monção Luciano Ferreira de Sá* João Corrêa da Costa* Thomé Corrêa da Costa José Francisco da Sena Cristovão Teixeira da Mata Luiz Barboza João Gomes Foguinho	Felix Xavier Duarte* Capitão Damásio Nunes José Antunes José Francisco da Cruz Antonio [Roi]z [...]yro José Miz [Martins] Antonio de Azevedo Felipe [?]g[os?]	Felix Xavier Duarte* Luciano Ferreira Bettencourt Sá* João Correia da Costa* Antonio da Cruz e Souza Joaquim Rabello de [?] Miguel da [e?] + [?za] Siprianno + Francisco Antonio Pereira de Afonseca Francisco da Chagas Antonio de Araujo e Aragão Antonio Joaquim da [Costa?] Ignácio de Jezus Paulo Ventura de Almeida

• ^*
  Characters that appear in several columns.
• Source: Salvador Metropolitan Curia Archives, "Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redempção", 1778; Archives of the Conceição da Praia church, miscellaneous papers, 1777.

It is possible to observe that four of the board members listed in 1776 (marked with *) remained in the leadership three years later in 1779, especially the president and then consultant, Xavier Duarte, and the treasurer and then president, Joao Nunes.

As mentioned earlier, there is a problematic documentary gap between 1780 and the first decade of the 19^th century. However, in an ordinance dated April 9, 1808, in which the brothers grant power to the treasurer Ignácio de Sampaio "to make all of the expenses concerning the festivities of the IBJNR and to pay any debts", it is possible to see the names of the board members that year, as given in Table 2.

Table 2
Board members of the brotherhood Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção, 1808.

	April 9, 1808	Nation	Profession
President	Joaquim Cardoso da Costa	Jeje	Barber/Musician/Captain
Scribe	João Gomes Touquinho	Jeje	–
Treasurer	Ignácio de Sampaio [S. Payo]	Jeje	Barber/Musician
Procurator	Manoel [Fraco] de Sta Anna	–	–
Consultants	Francisco Nunes de Moraes	Jeje	Barber/Musician
	Francisco da Silva Guerra	Jeje	Woodworker?
	José Gomes da Conceição	Costa de Leste	Shoemaker
	Agostinho Maciel	Jeje	–
	Thomas Cuadrado	Jeje	Barber
	[Two other illegible names]	–	–

• Source: For the list of brothers - Archives of the Conceição da Praia church, miscellaneous papers, 1808. For ethnic identification: Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (APEB), books of wills and inventories; Salvador Metropolitan Curia Archives, death and baptism books. For profession - other sources.

Thirty years after its foundation, two board members from the 1770s, João Gomes Touquinho (Foguinho) and Francisco Nunes de Moraes, continued to hold directorial positions in the brotherhood. Besides, there were two other Africans, José da Penha Ferreira and João Nunes, who were members in the 1770s and became presidents in 1805 and 1807, respectively. This indicates the persistence for over three decades of a network of freed Africans , most of them Jeje and, as we will see, with military ranks, which used the Corpo Santo chapel as a point of convergence.

Among these names, I have privileged those that appear both in the 1770s and in the 1800s. With the intention to better understand their relationships, I have used the "nominative association" methodology, or the cross-reference of different documentary series based on the connection established by the names of people who were associated to a specific individual. This methodology was complemented by the "collective biography" concept, which focuses on understanding the interconnections between the histories of several individuals.¹⁶ Within this approach, the character of João Nunes da Silva was particularly interesting, since he was one of the central nodes of this nominal network.

João Nunes and the brotherhood's Atlantic connections

João Nunes came from the Mina Coast and was baptized in the head church of the Pilar parish. He freed himself from slavery by paying 120$000 réis to his master, Jerônimo Nunes da Silva. In his will, written in 1807, Nunes declared that, before he got married, he had had, "illicit affairs" with the Mina Josefa Gonçalves dos Santos and a daughter named Feliciana Gonçalves (both deceased), and a granddaughter, Thereza de Oliveira.¹⁷After manumission, in July, 1766, he got married by the Church to Francisca Ribeira da Cruz, also a Mina, in the village of Cachoeira. Before that, they had both lived in the Conceição da Praia parish, in Salvador. They did not have any children.¹⁸

One year before the wedding, in 1765, the brotherhood of Senhor Bom Jesus dos Martírios was instituted "by black men of the Gege nation" in the convent of Carmo in Cachoeira. It is not unthinkable that the freed Nunes participated in this initiative, as there was possibly some connection and continuity between the Martírios' brotherhood in Cachoeira and the Redemption one at Corpo Santo.¹⁹

Anyway, in 1773, one year before the foundation of the IBJNR, Nunes became an assistant for expeditions and assaults (ajudante de entradas e assaltos) in the Santana parish, indicating that the couple was back in Salvador.²⁰ During that decade, he acquired some social notoriety, demonstrated by his participation as godfather in several baptisms of slaves and his position as treasurer and president of the IBJNR in 1776 and 1779.²¹ In 1785, the couple borrowed 340$000 réis offering as mortgage five slaves (Francisco Jeje; Manoel Angola; Antonio Nago; and Ignácia, and Manoel bothCreoles), and the "goods with all of their accessories [...]".²² This estate suggests relative prosperity, but I suspect that from then on Nunes' life took a different path.

In 1807, already a widower, the elder Nunes lived in the Santana parish. In that year, he was once again elected as the president of the IBJNR, and by the end of September he was about to leave for Luanda, kingdom of Angola, with his Jeje confrere Francisco da Silva Guerra, who was 50 years old and lived in the Conceição parish. They would travel in the brigantine São Manoel Ativo, under the orders of captain Bernardo da Silva Mindoens, an experienced sailor who had already done various trips between Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Maranhão, Lisboa, Luanda and Benguela. The São Manoel Ativo would embark the first contingent of slaves in Luanda on November 10, 1807.²³

We do not know if João Nunes returned in the same ship that had taken him to Angola; however, one year later, on November 4, 1808, João Gomes Touquinho opened his sealed will and declared that Nunes "had passed away in the city of Rio de Janeiro, coming from Benguela to this city [Bahia]".²⁴Smallpox outbreaks were common in Luanda in 1805, 1807, and 1808.²⁵ However, Francisco da Silva Guerra, his trip companion, had returned before this date because his signature is on the IBJNR ordinance from April 9, 1808 (Table 2). At this time there was already a new president, maybe because in front of the upcoming celebration of the annual procession on May 3, when Guerra brought the news about Nunes' death, the elections took place in advance.

Before he left, João Nunes had named Francisco da Silva Guerra, Alexandre Simão Pensa and the captain Bernardo da Silva Mindoens as the "executors of his will in those states in Benguela". In Bahia, he indicated the aforementioned João Gomes Touquinho, as well as José Gomes da Conceição and Joaquim Cardozo da Costa.²⁶ It is important to notice that, except for the ship captain, the other five executors belonged to the IBJNR; two of them (Touquinho and Pensa) were already present in 1776, and four of them (Touquinho, Guerra, Cardoso da Costa, and Gomes da Conceição) signed the IBJNR ordinance in April 1808. In other words, we are dealing with a group that maintained friendly and probably commercial relationships for over three decades, as part of the brotherhood.²⁷ Touquinho, Conceição and Nunes were also neighbors in the Santana parish.

Nunes and Guerra were possibly about to meet Alexandre Simão Pensa, described in 1807 as a "black man who lived in the city of Benguela".²⁸ Like Nunes, Pensa was originally from Mina Coast and was baptized in the Pilar church in Bahia, close to the Conceição da Praia parish.²⁹ Likewise, he was also a militiaman, and, in 1782, he became a Sargent of the Company of Black Men of Pirajá, a semirural parish in Salvador.³⁰ In a municipal record from 1790, his name appears under the rubric "Woods", which indicates he was either a wood supplier or a sawyer.³¹Pensa probably moved to Benguela in the last decade of the century, coincidong with the commercial expansion of that port. We know little about his experience in Africa, but he died there on April 3, 1808, during the same period as João Nunes; perhaps both victims of the same smallpox epidemic.³² So, what business were those Mina Africans conducting in the Angolan territories?

We are faced with a group that maintained friendship relationships and, probably, commercial ones too, for over three decades around the fraternity

It was not the first time João Nunes traveled to the "states of Loanda, kingdom of Angola", because in his will he claimed to be part of the brotherhood of Santo Antonio de Cathalagerona in Benguela.³³Besides, in a list of inhabitants of this city from 1797, he was described as the owner of a tavern in the port, where he certainly sold cachaça (rum) imported from Bahia. These were privileged places for buying and selling slaves, and Nunes was presumably involved in this activity. He is also referred to as a assistant or soldier of the Henriques militia and, therefore, he was likely to participate in campaigns to conquer and capture slaves in those lands, even though there is no further information on that.³⁴ His participation in the black militia of the Henriques' which operated throughout the Lusophone Atlantic world, provides continuity with the aforementioned position of assistant for expeditions and assaults (ajudante de entradas e assaltos). Decades later upon his death he still held onto "a uniform made of blue cloth lined with crimson satin, with golden epaulets and a vest of the same fabric with white embroidered satin", maybe his Henriques uniform (Figure 2).³⁵ Therefore, the military activity of Nunes and his parallel involvement in commercial affairs and the slave trade should be emphasized, as these characteristics seem to be present among other brothers in the IBJNR.

Figure 2
Uniform of the Regiment of the Henriques militiamen. Source: Luis dos Santos Vilhena, A Bahia no século XVIII, Salvador, Itapuã, 1969, vol. 1, carta 7.

In the above mentioned list from 1797, João Nunes appears as living with the freed Juliana and her seven-year-old "pardo" son, Manoel (probably his dependents), and as the owner of six slaves, being two men - Miguel (apprentice cooper) and Francisco (barber) - and four women: Catharina, Anna, Quitéria and Florinda.³⁶ Nunes lived maritally with Catharina, from Benguela, and during that period he had a daughter with her named Maria da Conceição Nunes. She was blind and years later was named his heir, together with his granddaughter Theresa. Anna, also from Benguela, was his slave for a long time, since she worked for him in Salvador, at least since 1789, as proven by the municipal license he requested for her to sell on the streets. When Nunes freed Anna, probably once back in Salvador, he kept her "emancipation letter together with his own, suggesting that they lived as husband and wife or that he did not want another person to take her earnings".³⁷ Anna had two Creole daughters, Eugenia and Maria, who were emancipated by him in his will, from 1807. João who was still a kid and apprentice sawyer is also a slave mentioned in this document. He was also from Benguela. Absent from the will, the slave Domingos figures in the testamentary partition and though he appears referred to as Angola he was probably from Benguela, as João himself who in the partition is also identified as Angola. He is described as a young lad, "still boçal" which indicates that he had recently arrived in Bahia, maybe together with Guerra after his master's death.³⁸

The increase in slave trafficking between Benguela and Salvador began around 1775. Between 1781 and 1789, there was an average addition of 6 thousand slaves a year. In this period, 38 boats arrived from Benguela to Bahia, 29 from Luanda, 3 from Loango, and 1 from Cabinda. Trade with Benguela increased significantly between 1792 and 1796, with an average addition of 10 thousand slaves annually.³⁹ The increment of Benguela captives in the last decade of the 18^th century, when Nunes was there, is reflected in Bahia's slave demography and in other places such as the brotherhood of Rosário de João Pereira, which, in 1784, divided its directorial board between Jeje and Benguela Africans.⁴⁰

The case of Nunes and his friends in IBJNR suggests that, together with other goods, they invested in slave trafficking, and in this period they privileged the benguela slaves

With the trip in 1807, Nunes could be trying to make money again. With a loan of 600$000 réis, he bought the "effects I carry with me in the boat [...]", expecting to pay the debt when he returned, "for the products I'm carrying". In case it was not sufficient, he would mortgage his two houses in the Saúde street, in the Santana parish. He also declared he owed money to the godmother of his daughter, Madam Izabel Monteira, around 50$000 réis, which "she had lent him without any receipt".⁴¹ With an initial capital that corresponded to the sale price of four adult slaves in Bahia, what did he intend to "carry" from Angola? The presence of Domingos in the testamentary partition is perhaps an indication of that.

The case of Nunes and his friends in the IBJNR suggests that, together with other goods, they invested in the slave trade that during this period privileged the Benguela captives. However, nothing indicates they had sufficient capital for any involvement on a grand scale. What is worth highlighting is the existence of commercial relations between Bahia and Angola established by Mina and Jeje Africans and militiamen tied to the IBJNR. Nunes' membership to both this brotherhood and that of Santo Antonio de Cathalagerona in Benguela indicates there is a chance that, beyond religious devotion, these associations worked as mutual aid "societies" within the commercial context of the Atlantic. It is worth reiterating that, in 1807, João Nunes traveled to Angola when he was the president of the IBJNR.⁴² Would his trip have any connection with his position, or was he simply doing personal business?

In Central Africa, religious institutions such as the Lemba cult had the double purpose of providing spiritual resources and interconnecting the economic elite by using commercial routes that crossed ethnically diverse regions, often in conflict.⁴³ During the 19^th century the Ekpe society on the Niger deltaand its Cuban counterpart, the Abakuá society, seem to have played a similar role.⁴⁴ In becoming networks of commercial solidarity with a regional and perhaps a transatlantic dimension, the functionality of catholic brotherhoods experienced and interesting unfolding, a process that can also be interpreted as a form of Africanization of these institutions.⁴⁵

Captains, barbers, bleeders and musicians

José da Penha Ferreira was another one of the brothers who remained attached to the IBJNR for decades. In 1777, he was the scrivener (Table 1) and, almost 30 years later, in 1805, he became the president. In 1823, he also appeared as a general procurator.⁴⁶ In the black brotherhoods of the 18^th century, whites generally occupied the scrivener position, but José da Penha was from the Mina Coast. He must have learned to read and write as a child, because when he arrived in Bahia in 1753, he was six months old.⁴⁷Braz Ferreira da Penha and his wife, Josefa Gomes, bought José da Penha along with his mother, baptized as Isabel. After Braz died, his widow was married again to a black man called Felix Xavier Duarte, who was the president of the IBJNR in 1776 and consultant in the following years.⁴⁸

The freedman Felix Xavier Duarte became a captain for expeditions and assaults in the Rio Vermelho district in 1773, the same year that his confrere Nunes became an assistant to the same position.⁴⁹ By 1776 he was already married and in December 1784 together with his wife - in this document, named Josefa Gomes da Costa - he bought a two-story house, which was located in the street that led from Quitanda Velha to the Jerusalém hospice, for 500$000 réis.⁵⁰ In these two decades he godfathered and was master to several slaves.⁵¹ Except for that, the figure who was probably one of the founders of the IBJNR remains elusive and enigmatic. But coming back to José da Penha, we know that his mistress, Josefa, granted him his freedom letter gratuitously while Duarte was still alive.⁵²

This information shows that the IBJNR admitted as a brother the freed son of a slave who belonged to the president's wife,. The IBJNR not only admitted him but also gave him an important position when he was only in his twenties, probably because of his literacy. In the following year the presumably white chaplain of Corpo Santo replaced him, suggesting the brotherhood's difficulty in finding Africans to occupy the post of scrivener. However, José da Penha does not seem to have wasted the opportunities provided by his good education. In 1796 he appears in the list of brothers from the Rosário da Baixa dos Sapateiros as "captain": another reference to the military activities of the IBJNR brothers.⁵³

The title of "captain" leads to ambiguity because it could refer either to a sea captain, a military captain, a captain for expeditions and assaults, or even a captain of a canto, a work group of carriers and wage-earning slaves. Among the urban militias there was the aforementioned Third Regiment of the Henriques made up of freed blacks.⁵⁴ However, the largest contingent of black captains seems to have served as captains for expeditions and assaults. These were commanded by white officers, a captain and a sergeant major, "but the rest of the troop were blacks, their highest title being that of captain". During wartime, they explored the "hinterlands, the roads and the shores", and served as messengers by taking orders and letters; in times of peace, they were used to "hunt and capture fugitive slaves as they formed the fearsome quilombos [maroon communities], as well as to follow, in the way of professional bounty men, the prisoners who often succeeded in escaping the prisons". That is, the captains for expeditions and assaults were the feared slave hunters known as "bush captains" (capitães do mato).⁵⁵ It is uncertain which category Penha fit into, but the recurrence of brothers in the IBJNR as captains for expeditions and assaults and members of the Henriques cannot be neglected. The convergence of the brotherhood's elite and the black militiamen, especially as regards the founders in the 1770s, allows one to argue that the brotherhood's constitution was a result of the initiative and corporate spirit of this professional group.⁵⁶

Another remarkable feature is that many of these captains and militiamen worked as barbers and barber's orchestra conductors. During the colonial period in Brazil barbers performed various functions including those of surgeons or doctors, with the license to "bleed, make incisions, suctions and use leeches"; some of them could apply diaphoretics, remove teeth, or prepare medicines and cures such as purgatives.⁵⁷ Likewise, in the barber shops it was possible to sharpen tools, from razors to blades.⁵⁸ Without a doubt, the familiarity with the razor and healing practices could approximate some of these barbers and bleeders to the religious universe of Candomblé (Afro-Brazilian religion).⁵⁹

Many of them also combined these skills with those of musicians or leaders of barber's music bands. Brotherhoods commonly included musical participation during processions, annual festivities, charity collections, funerals and so on.⁶⁰ For instance, the statutes of 1765 from the brotherhood of Martírios in Cachoeira specified that on the day of the festivity they would have, "from the Church door outwards, lights, fireworks, drums, trumpets, and whatever is used in this function". At the IBJNR, on the day of the procession, each of the steps representing the martyrdom of Jesus Christ was accompanied by "its customary music and verse".⁶¹ While visiting Salvador in 1813 the English traveler James Prior mentioned that while attending mass he could hear outside the church "musket shots, fireworks, drums, tambourines, clarinets and shouts from people in a constant choir".⁶²

The instruments of barber bands included a wind section (trumpets, clarinets, fifes and flutes), a metal section (cymbals) and a percussion section (side drums and zabumbas or bass drums) (Figure 3). String instruments such as the fiddle could also be part of the barber bands in Bahia.⁶³ With this myriad of instruments it remains difficult to imagine what kind of music they were playing. Considering the religious context of the brotherhoods, besides a rhythmic base of African inspiration similar to that of the batuques and lundus, other influences could include, for example, baroque music from Minas Gerais, or perhaps military marching bands.⁶⁴

Figure 3
Collecting alms for the festivity of Espírito Santo (Holy Ghost), with a music band. Source: Thomas Ewbank, Life in Brazil (New York, 1856), p. 251 (copy in Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library).

One of the brothers in the IBJNR who was a barber, an orchestra leader and a militiaman was Francisco Nunes de Moraes. This "black Jeje" remained faithful to the brotherhood throughout time, serving as president in 1777 and consultant in 1808 (Tables 1 and 2). In 1773 he appeared as a "master barber", in 1781 as an orchestra leader, and in 1790 once again as a barber.⁶⁵In 1779 he became a trumpet-major in the auxiliary cavalry of Salvador.⁶⁶ He had been a slave of the Major Captain Antonio Nunes de Moraes, "who upon his death freed me for 250$000 réis". Resident in the Pilar parish, he was married to the Creole Ifigênia Maria da Trindade with whom he never had children. Moraes wrote his first will in 1790, but in 1810 annexed a codicil, soon before his death on January 13, 1811, at the age of 80 or so. It is worth nothing that among the witnesses that signed the codicil there was Bernardo da Silva Mendoens, the same captain who took João Nunes to Benguela.⁶⁷

The documentation shows that Moraes experienced a process of rapid wealth accumulation and social ascension. While in 1790 he mentions just 2 slaves (fiddle and counter bass apprentice musicians), in 1808 he appears as the master of more than 12 captives, with their respective offspring. He emancipated most of them, including five "barber officials" members of his orchestra, under the condition they accompany his wife until her death. He granted the Creole Petronila the bride outfit and 100$000 réis in case she married a "person of good manners". He still determined to allocate his clothes amongst his slaves. Therefore, though he appears as a powerful patriarch, he treated his dependents in a relatively benign manner.⁶⁸

Knowing the razor and practicing cure could approximate some of these surgeon barbers to the religious universe of Candomblé (Afro-Brazilian religion)

Moraes left the barber's instruments in his wife's hands, "so that the slaves can play them, and after she dies, they will be distributed among them". However, he warned, asked and begged "that every time our good lord [of Redenção] comes out in procession, if they are not dealing with an urgent matter, they should accompany it, because this is my will". Although his orchestra also participated in the festivities of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, the reference to the "good" lord indicates his involvement in the IBJNR processions as well.⁶⁹

Moraes was not the only barber and musician in the IBJNR. I identified at least other five brothers with that profession. Damásio Nunes, who served as captain for expeditions and assaults and as consultant in 1777 (Table 1), was paid an insignificant amount in 1774 in return for the "fiddles and kettledrums (atabales)" he used to play at the church's entrance.⁷⁰ Another one was Ignácio de Sampaio, who appears as a musician or orchestra leader in 1789 and as a barber in 1790.⁷¹ Twenty years later, in 1810, this Jeje man became a witness in the will of João Nunes. He was identified as being approximately 70 years old (therefore, born around 1740), married, and living in the alley of Aljubes (Algibebes), at the Conceição da Praia parish, "who lives out of his barber shop".⁷² In his will written in 1805 he declared to have been the president of the IBJNR and in the 1808 ordinance he appears as a treasurer (Table 2). Sampaio arrived in Bahia as a child, maybe around 1750. He was a slave to João Sampaio though he bought his freedom for 70$000 réis before his master died in 1776,.⁷³ Before 1788 he married Thereza Correa de Souza, a Jeje black woman, with whom he had a daughter, Brasília Correa de Sampaio, one year before their nuptials. He owned several slaves three of whom were buried in the church of Conceição da Praia between 1788 and 1800, while other three were freed in his will, under the condition they accompany his wife until she died.⁷⁴ He also godfathered several others, indicating his social visibility in the African community.⁷⁵

Our fourth barber, Joaquim Cardoso da Costa, was also a music-band owner and a militiaman and served as the second will executor of João Nunes, in Bahia. Joaquim appears as the president of the IBJNR in 1808, together with the consultant Nunes de Moraes and the treasurer Sampaio (Table 2). That is, in the early 19^th century the board of the IBJNR gathered the main barber band owners in the city.

Joaquim Cardoso da Costa, like his brotherhood comrades, was freedman from the Jeje nation living in the Conceição da Praia parish, where he had been baptized. In 1786 he already appears as a musician or leader of a barber orchestra and in 1790 he is listed as a barber.⁷⁶ He was married to Joaquina Maria da Conceição, "also from the Coast", and had no children. Like most freedmen from the brotherhood he was a slave-owner; in 1803 he buried one of them, Simplício, a ten-year-old Jeje.⁷⁷ On December 9, 1809, he baptized two other slaves: Felipa, a 30 year-old Nago, and the newborn Joana, daughter of the slave Maria.⁷⁸ The godfathers were the Africans Francisco Moreira and Luis Campos respectively; the latter was part of IBJNR and the former was married to Rita Campos, who also belonged to the brotherhood.

Therefore, we observe that the bonds created by the brotherhood overlap with the social network created by the baptismal godfathering ties (compadrio).

Joaquim passed away in 1826 and in his will, drafted on May 18, he declared to own among his "insignificant property" 10 slaves, 6 of which were musicians. Joaquim, from the (Mina)Coast was freed and inherited "everything in my barber shop, except for the musical instruments".⁷⁹ He also freed the musicians, under the condition they paid certain amount before a pre-established date. They were all young, four from Mozambique (Albino, Benedito, Francisco and Marcos) and two Nago (Vitorino and Quintino). All the musical instruments were left to Albino, "master of barber music [...] for him to use with the others", so they could pay their freedom, "without enabling the aforementioned slave to profit from their work at all". The list of instruments included "three clarinets, two Portuguese ones, one fife, one flute, two trumpets, one clarion with its curves and the wooden boxes to keep them, one bass drum, one side drum, and one pair of cymbals; all very old, valued at 12$000 réis".⁸⁰ The orchestra of Felipe Botelho, another barber musician - president of the IBJNR, probably in the 1830s - included a "contrabass", horns, cornets, bass drums, besides the "musicians' uniforms".⁸¹ It may be speculated that the uniforms of the barber music bands were somehow related to its owners' proximity with the militiamen.

Back to Joaquim Cardoso da Costa, in his will a list of clothes included a "captain for assaults uniform".⁸² Effectively, in 1790 he received the title of captain for expeditions and assaults, meaning that along with his business as an orchestra leader and as a barber, he also occupied his time with more virulent activities.⁸³ In Vila Rica, Minas Gerais, there is a dispatch from 1806 regarding "Joaquim Cardoso da Costa's request for a license to use guns amongst his troop".⁸⁴ The overlap of the barber, musician and militia activities repeats itself with our next brother.

José Antonio d'Etra was another Jeje African who was born around 1738, since when he died on May 7, 1828, he was about 90 years old.⁸⁵ He probably was shipped to America in the mid-18^th century and in Bahia he was a slave of the sea captain Francisco Antonio d'Etra, a slave-trader in the Mina Coast.⁸⁶ In 1782 José Antonio appears for the first time as a musician or leader of a barber orchestra.⁸⁷ From 1790 onwards he also appears annually in the municipal records as a barber.⁸⁸ In 1794 he received the title of captain for expeditions and assaults in the Paripe parish.⁸⁹ That is, the captain post was the last stage of professional ascension.

In the early 19^th century José Antonio lived in Grades de Ferro in the Praia parish, close to the Corpo Santo chapel, where he stayed throughout his life. He married Mariana Joaquina da Silva Pereira, also a freed Jeje, with whom he had no children. He became a widower in January, 1811. The couple seems to have lived peacefully because she recognized the "love, fidelity and care he had for me and the good union we had".⁹⁰ He was a member of at least five other brotherhoods, indicating he stood out in the city's African community. In 1801, for instance, he served as consultant in the Rosário da Baixa de Sapateiros brotherhood, while his wife figured as judge.⁹¹ In his death record, however the IBJNR is the first of the list, perhaps indicating his preference for this brotherhood.⁹²

Already widowed for 17 years, upon drafting his will he declared to own "neither gold nor silver, let alone money, because I sold everything in times of war to eat", in reference to the war of Independence that had taken place five years earlier. However, Etra's main property was composed of slaves, which would explain the prioritization of food. In 1806, for instance, he baptized six captives at once.⁹³ Years later in 1809 Etra buried other two: Francisco and Benedito, the latter being a newly arrived Mina slave, aged 16 years.⁹⁴ In his will of 1828 he gratuitously freed 15 slaves (7 adults and 8 children), ordering that some of them stay in the company of their godfathers. He also freed two female slaves under the condition they paid for their freedom before a certain date, while he kept other four in captivity (three of them were donated to his heir). This sums to a total of 21 captives, no small number.

José Antonio d'Etra named one of the children born to his slaves and raised in his house as his heir and first will executor. It was Manoel, son of Antonia d'Etra, probably freed by the same José Antonio or by his former master, Francisco Antonio.⁹⁵ His fellow countryman, the Jeje José da Costa Faria, was the second will executor. He was also a barber with a shop in the Conceição da Praia and a brother of the IBJNR.⁹⁶ Besides, Faria was also a militiaman and in 1779 received the title ofsecond lieutenant in the Third Regiment of the Henriques, in Salvador.⁹⁷ The third will executor was Geraldo Roiz Pereira, another affluent and influential brother of the IBJNR who participated in the slave trade and maintained commercial relations with José Antonio.

I will talk about Roiz Pereira further ahead, but first it is worth mentioning the notorious saga of barbers and musicians that issued from d'Etra's house. In the 1840s, the heir himself, the Creole Manoel José d'Etra, was the "owner of a band [of barbers] in the Grades de Ferro street: the best".⁹⁸ The young Manoel learned with his master the crafts of barber, bleeder and music band leader. Yet, he must have also benefited from the contacts with his patron's confreres at the IBJNR, Moraes, Cardoso da Costa, Sampaio and José da Costa Faria. Manoel José being named Faria's will executor, for instance, proves such a close relationship.⁹⁹

He declared not to own "gold or silver, and let alone money, because I sold everything in times of war to eat"

Even connected to the social network of his patron, the Creole Manoel does not figure as a member of the IBJNR, which may indicate the persistence of the brotherhood's African exclusivity in the first half of the century.¹⁰⁰ Manoel died in 1856, but the leadership of his music band was maintained by his freed slaves.¹⁰¹Moreover, other slaves of José Antonio d'Etra learned the craft of barber and bleeder (Figure 4). For instance, in 1808 the Jeje Maximiano d'Etra was licensed to be a bleed and to make suctions.¹⁰² Another Jeje, Francisco Nazaré d'Etra, married to Julia Soares (the high priestess of the Gantois Afro-Brazilian temple) also appears working as a barber in 1845.¹⁰³ The Nago Atanásio d'Etra, who was accused in the revolt of the Males in 1835, traveled in that same year to the African coast with José Bernardino da Costa Faria, another Nago. Bernardino was a slave of the already mentioned José da Costa Faria and he was an important barber, bleeder and leech breeder, with ties to the world of Candomblé.¹⁰⁴ Besides, he became the scrivener of the IBJNR in 1853.¹⁰⁵ Another slave of José Antonio, the Nago Ciriaco d'Etra, also a barber, requested a passport to Africa in 1844 and in 1847.¹⁰⁶

Figure 4
Street barbers, 1826 - Rio de Janeiro. Water color by Jean Baptiste Debret.

The direct or indirect involvement of some IBJNR brothers in the slave trade, such as José Antonio d'Etra, allows one to suppose that some of his apprentice barbers worked in slave ships by offering rudimentary medical care to the captives and participating in the business at a small scale, when the opportunity arose.¹⁰⁷ For example, the Mina Antonio Mendes dos Santos, a member of the IBJNR too, worked since 1807 "embarking to the African Coast and Europe as a barber". He had a slave, Joaquim, who was also a barber and bleeder.¹⁰⁸ Francisco Nazaré (not the one from Etra's house) also travelled in 1828 as a "barber for the African ports", by taking a cargo of "different items related to the business in the coast". He left his slave Manoel, a Nago kid, to learn "the barber's craft in Antonio de Araujo Santana's shop". Santana was another Mina barber close to the IBJNR social circle and well known for his involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.¹⁰⁹

To sum up, the barber craft, alongside its healing and playful musical extensions, was a privileged activity in the IBNJR. The relationship between master and slave frequently became one of master-apprentice, and the craft was passed on from generation to generation from the 18^th century to at least the 1860s. The profusion of barbers in the brotherhood, as mentioned before, seems to provide it with aspects of a professional corporation. At the same time, the involvement of several of these African barbers in the slave trade is a remarkable aspect, which seems to expand the brotherhood's professional orientation to wider mercantile arenas.¹¹⁰

Merchants, slave-traders and the logic of social insertion and ascension

The corporatism of musicians-barbers-bleeders appears as an almost exclusively African phenomenon, or at least circumscribed to the black population. However, the social ascension of the freedmen in the IBJNR usually went through a relative insertion into the world of their former masters, be they white or African. Long-lasting relationships, both affective and based on shared interest, between freedmen and their former masters were common. In their wills many freedmen asked for masses on the souls of their patrons or expressed their appreciation for the received education.¹¹¹ But such relationships went beyond the affective and the educational, and could also involve professional and commercial partnerships. The term "patron" connotes the idea of the paternal figure, but it also conveys the meaning of protector. Protected and inserted into the social circle of their patrons, these "dependent freedmen" combined forms of ideological subjection and paternalism.¹¹²

Obviously the relationships between freedmen and former masters were not always benevolent, nor without tensions and conflicts. However, tone may consider the possible correlation between processes of cooperation and accommodation to the patrons' standards and the prosperity of some of these freedmen. Marrying in the church was one of these "standards", and one may suggest that the social ascension and wealth accumulation for these Africans were somehow reinforced by such matrimonial alliances and in some cases the absence of descendants. In fact, several of the wives of these freedmen were members of the IBJNR, indicating the superposition of networks of marital affinity and spiritual kinship.¹¹³ The adherence to Catholic faith may be interpreted as another mechanism of insertion into the colonial society. Yet it did not necessarily involve a "conversion" rejecting the African religious universe, but instead implied the adoption of a code and public image perceived as indispensable for the participation in the social and commercial networks that would ultimately allow the desired social ascension.¹¹⁴

I am not stating that the key to success was assimilation. As Maria Inês Cortes de Oliveira points out, "Africans used the language of the dominant culture to acquire the right to express their interests".¹¹⁵Perhaps we could speak of a process of creolization or "ladinization", consisting in an attempt to appropriate the codes and behaviors of the masters - not only cultural, but also commercial - in order to better control and take advantage of them.¹¹⁶ Yet, as I expect to have made clear, alongside the interaction with the "patrons", an important part of the social success of these freedmen was owed to their parallel articulation with their African peers, especially in the brotherhoods that, at first sight, seem to be spaces of accommodation.

This double dynamics of strategic adaptation to the master's world and of intra-African cooperation can be illustratedby the third will executor of João Nunes in Bahia, and also his neighbor in Saúde, the African José Gomes da Conceição. In his will he declared to be "from the East Coast", while in a document of the inventory his wife identifies him as being from the Mina Coast.¹¹⁷Therefore, he could be from the eastern part of the Mina Coast, that is, from the so-called "lower ports" such as Porto Novo, Apa or Badagry. If he were Mozambique, he would be a remarkable exception in a circle that was mainly composed of Jeje. He was the treasurer of the IBJNR and consultant in 1813, the year he died. His wife, the Angola Mariana Angélica do Coração de Jesus, was named his first will executor and heir. They had two daughters: Maria do Nascimento and Maria Angélica. The third will executor was João Gomes Touqinho, the same African who took care of Nune's will and neighbor of both.¹¹⁸

José Gomes was baptized in Conceição da Praia, "being a slave of Luiz de Souza Gomes, single, who granted me freedom when I gave him another slave to replace me". This sort of arrangement, unusual but possible, already shows a privileged relationship with his master.¹¹⁹ He must have learned the art of shoemaking as a slave, because once freed, with the assistance of his patron who rented him a store in the Algibebes street in the lower city, he dedicated himself to the commerce in leathers, above all men's shoes, women's slippers, shoe leather, shoelaces, lasts, socks, wires, but also fish oil, soy, cloth and so on. In 1811, already freed, he appears as a "shoemaker" in the municipal records.¹²⁰

In the year he passed away he was a master to five slaves, two young Angola men and three Jeje women. Gomes also had three houses, a one story-house on Flores street, and 2 two-story houses on the Fortinho and Saúde streets. The latter, where he lived, was acquired for 200$000 réis in 1804 when it was only "a mud house and a backyard". It was assessed at 1 conto 200$000 réis in 1813, when it was being rebuilt.¹²¹

José Gomes skillfully cultivated his "dependence" relationship with his patron and his relatives, to negotiate successive credits and revalue his investments in real estate and merchandise. Therefore, even though he had no cash, he accumulated property assessed at almost 4 contos 500$000 réis. Yet the apparent wealth did not correspond to his real patrimony and his widow faced difficulties in paying the debts that arose after his death.¹²² Anyway, during his life the African José Gomes da Conceição lived as a properous merchant with a store in the vibrant lower city and a luxury that certainly caused admiration.

The freedman social ascension allowed him to ensure a promising future to his Creole children. On June 21, 1814, his oldest daughter, Maria Angélica do Coração de Jesus, at the age of 19 requested permission to marry the assistant for expeditions and assaults from the Conceição da Praia parish, Geraldo Roiz Pereira, "a black man with manners that the supplicant [the mother] has inquired about and which will take good care of her daughter".¹²³ The position of assistant for "bush captain" (capitão do mato) in the port parish where most slaves disembarked, involved a daily contact with ship captains and the owners of the warehouses where captives were kept until their sale. This might have favored Geraldo's posterior involvement in the slave trade, which would make him much richer than his father-in-law. As observed, Roiz Pereira was the will executor of José Antonio d'Etra and, like him, he was also affiliated to the IBJNR. Therefore, it is possible to see how the brotherhood recruited successive generations of Africans, thus building ethnic, spiritual, kinship and commercial alliances that reinforced the articulation of a black elite in Bahia. The figure of Roiz Pereira and his social network support the hypothesis of a relationship between the affiliation to the brotherhood and mercantile activities associated with the slave trade.

Geraldo was from the Mina Coast and for an undetermined period of time he was a slave of the influential João Ferreira de Bittencourt Sá.¹²⁴ Geraldo died on March 15, 1830, and he was buried with honors in the head church of the Pilar parish where he used to live, accompanied by a master of ceremonies, 27 priests and organ music.¹²⁵ Since he had no children from his marriage, he named as his heir the minor Joana Maria do Coração de Jesus, a former slave of his godfather, Manoel Pereira Lopes. Like his confrere d'Etra, Geraldo belonged to several brotherhoods, but amongst them, the first named and the one which received the largest amount of 25$000 réis was the IBJNR, signalizing the hierarchy of his preference.¹²⁶

In the will Geraldo lists 15 slaves as his property, 4 women and 11 men (one Mina, one Haussa, one Cabinda, one Jeje, and seven Nago). He freed gratuitously eight of them and two were freed under condition. However, in the inventory (a document with over 200 pages), there is mention of other six kids, all iron-branded. Moreover, the first will executor in charge of the inventory, captain João Pereira e Araujo e França, who was also a notorious slaver, declared there were "15 more new slaves, belonging to the society formed by the couple and Inocêncio de Araujo Santana", accounting for a total 36 captives.¹²⁷ These groups of newly arrived slaves are irrefutable proof of Geraldo's involvement in the clandestine slave trade, since he profited from the sale of slaves captured in the Mina Coast in the 1820s, when commerce was forbidden north of the Equator.

This business explains the prosperity of this African man who accumulated a patrimony valued at more than 33 contos of réis, including five houses, one of them with two stories, in the Pilar parish where he lived. The house was decorated with luxury items such as 12 golden frames. Among his personal objects there were instruments that reveal his commercial activity, such as "blacksmith tools" (to make fetters?), "glasses to see distant objects", "one pair of pistols", and "one iron safe with a secret key".¹²⁸

The African José Gomes da Conceição lived as a successful merchant with his store, in the lower city, exhibiting luxury that certainly was a reason for admiration

Geraldo lent large amounts of money, but he also acquired huge debts. Among his commercial partners we can identify the Jeje Inocêncio de Araujo Santana with whom he had a society. The Mina Antonio de Araújo Santana - the aforementioned barber, maybe a former slave of Inocêncio - declared to have sent several slaves to Geraldo from the African Coast (probably that lot of 15 young slaves referred to above). There is a signed legal document worth 364$000 réis addressed to Francisco da Silva Guerra, the person who accompanied João Nunes during his trip to Benguela. There is also a 260$000 réis debt with Joaquim d'Almeida, another Jeje who had close relationships with the IBJNR and who would also become a slaver. Among his creditors figured the Baron of Itaparica and other commercial companies. Geraldo complemented his cargo of captives with other goods, such as panos da Costa (African weaved fabric used by Candomblé devotees), leopard skins and palm oil.¹²⁹ One of his suppliers in Onim (Lagos), for instance, Francisco Simões, charged the widow with a debt for sending a barrel of palm oil in 1829.¹³⁰

Geraldo also traveled. In January, 1826 he requested a passport to the African Coast, bringing with him four children born to his slaves: Bento, Germano, José and João.¹³¹ Of these, the young Bento, a Mina, was sent to the African Coast again in October 1829, a little before Geraldo died.¹³² Bento was freed and received 100$000 réis in the will. The inventory shows 40$000 réis paid "to the slave Bento, for his trip", possibly the one of 1829.¹³³ In 1831 Bento bought one of the newly-arrived female slaves brought by his deceased master.¹³⁴ These indices suggest Bento's participation in the slave trade, reiterating the captives' pattern of involvement and apprenticeship in the professional activities of their patrons. That is to say, they were not simply taught crafts such as those of barber, but they were also trained in commercial skills regarding the recruitment, purchase, custody and shipment of slaves.

In 1835 Bento Roiz Pereira returned to the African Coast, bringing with him his wife, two young children, two female slaves and a child to them. They settled in Agoué, a village that from that point on became one of the most important ports for the illegal traffic in the Mina Coast.¹³⁵ Another person who returned from Bahia and settled there was the previously mentioned African of Mahi origin Joaquim d'Almeida. Besides becoming the most renowned slaver in Agoué, he is remembered for building there a chapel under the invocation of Our Lord of the Redemption (Nosso Senhor da Redenção), probably in the 1840s. Once again, the slave trade network associated with the IBJNR extended, as in the times of João Nunes, to the other side of the Atlantic.¹³⁶

From the trips to Luanda and Benguela in the late 18^th century, to the end of the illegal slave trade in the mid-19^th century, the IBJNR seems to have provided a support network to some of its members in the activities of the nefarious commerce. If brothers like João Nunes or Guerra participated at a small scale and others, like José Antonio d'Etra, may have benefited from the trade only indirectly as receivers or buyers, there were others, like Geraldo Roiz Pereira, Inocêncio de Araujo Santana, Antonio de Araujo Santana or Joaquim d'Almeida, who invested more heavily and intensified the volume of this mercantile activity. Certainly at this last level the commercial network extended beyond the circle of Africans from the brotherhood and was inserted into a larger socioeconomic circuit that crossed barriers of ethnicity, color and nationality. However, the perpetuation of these commercial interests in the heart of the brotherhood across generations confers the association a typical character of corporate groups.

The brotherhood as a potential mercantile association could be characterized as the "embryo" of an emerging small black "bourgeoisie". No matter how precarious, unstable and subject to political exclusion, this prosperous Afro-Bahian community perpetuated itselfat least until the beginning of the Republic in 1899.

The brotherhood as a potential mercantile association

Lucilene Reginaldo considers that catholic confraternities and military corporations gathered the "elite" of men of color in Portuguese America.137 The remarkable presence of militiamen in the IBJNR suggests that the members of this elite participated in both institutions at the same time. Besides the "bush captains" (capitães do mato) and the Henriques, the presence of merchants, barbers, band leaders, sailors, and slave traders confirms the fact that, between 1770 and 1830, the IBJNR aggregated the most successful sector of the African community in Salvador. In the turn of the century, this elite was mostly composed by Mina and Jeje Africans, and it laid the basis for the development, after the 1820s, of an elite composed mostly by Nago people. I would even dare to say that the brotherhood included a restricted group of Africans who, due to its insertion into the capitalist market and because of its ability to accumulate wealth (especially in the form of slaves and real estate), could be characterized as the "embryo" of an emerging small black "bourgeoisie". No matter how precarious, unstable and subject to political exclusion, this prosperous Afro-Bahian community perpetuated itselfat least until the beginning of the Republic in 1899.

Given the representations of black brotherhoods as associations preoccupied with assisting sick people, organizing funerals and granting manumission to its members, the IBJNR appears effectively as a mutual aid society, and yet oriented towards satisfying the interests of the most powerful. African conversion to the Catholic faith has been interpreted as a form of cultural "Brazilianization" (or assimilation) and, as pointed out, the adoption of manners from the white elites may have been a way to achieve faster social mobility. But conversion was not limited to spirituality or culture; it could also involve the replication of an economic modus operandi, the insertion in the market and work dynamics and, when possible, in its maximum expression at the time which was the slave trade.

In moral terms, the freedmen's adherence to Christianity apparently did not impose any type of remorse or constriction in relation to their involvement in the infamous trade; on the contrary, conversion seems to have worked as a pre-requisite, a sign of prestige that legitimated their involvement in a differentiated economy. Therefore, the catholic manners could favor Africans in their interlocution and negotiation with ship captains, ship owners or capitalist associates, both white and mixed-race, Brazilian or Portuguese. In this sense Catholicism could be interpreted as a necessary condition for their insertion into a merchant community.

I tried to suggest an understanding of the brotherhood beyond the religious, as a potential capitalist society. I remember that in the IBJNR's term that accompanied the original statutes from April 13, 1776, the brothers obliged themselves to report their accounts to the administrator of religious properties and not to reelect a treasurer nor "lend money with interest".¹³⁸ The imposition of this term suggests that usury and financial speculation were some dynamics the authorities intended to control. In the brotherhood's accounts there are not many expenses besides the costs of the annual festival and funerals, but I suspect there could be some kind of what we now call "slush fund" which could allow for the capitalization of other investments.

In the 1830s, there is evidence of major loans that the brotherhood granted to some of its members, such as the 600$000 réis given to the slave trader Luiz de Campo Souza, who had been president and member of the board at that time.¹³⁹ However, the brotherhood also contracted considerable debts. For instance, on November 25, 1830 one of its procurators, João Barboza de Oliveira, registered a deed of debt, obligation and mortgage that the brotherhood recognized in favor of another brother, José Marques de Cerqueira, a Jeje slaver too. The latter had paid a debt of 397$000 réis which the brotherhood had acquired with João Pinto de Cerqueira, in order to avoid the brotherhood's judicial embargo. As a good businessman, José Marques de Oliveira charged interests for the loan.¹⁴⁰

That is, besides spiritual assistance, the brotherhood supported matters from this world and was not limited to commerce, but it could also involve legal suits and account reports. For instance, when in 1810 Touquinho presented the judge (juiz de fora e órfãos) the expenses related to the tutoring of João Nunes' heirs, two of the three witnesses who supported the bills were brothers of IBJNR; Guerra and Ignácio de Sampaio. That is, the brotherhood offered a social and logistic network that met the legal demands of its members.

Brotherhoods also invested in real estate. In the IBJNR there are indications of a first donation in the 1810s, in the will of captain José da Penha Ferreira. He left his two houses, one in Baixa de São Bento and the other in Ladeira das Hortas, to his wife, the Mina Clara Alvares Ferreira and to three emancipated slaves of the couple. However, Penha specified that after all of them were dead the houses should be granted to the IBJNR. With the income from the rents he asked for weekly masses on his and his wife's souls, as well as for his mother's and his former mistress'. Penha died in 1823; however the brotherhood only claimed his legacy in 1846, when the houses had been already sold.¹⁴¹ Maybe it was not by chance that the IBJNR worried about this estate at the time when the Atlantic slave trade possibilities began to run out. In 1853, the IBJNR had three houses, but the brotherhood of the Rosário da Baixa de Sapateiros, to mention the wealthiest one among the African confraternities, had 13 houses and 5 terrains in the city.¹⁴² This real estate economy that worked behind religious activities grew until the 1860s, giving these mutual-aid societies a patrimonial and corporate dimension.

I obviously do not intend to reduce the IBJNR to a mere group of slavers and real estate speculators, but rather to underscore the economic policy operating beneath the power relationsand clientelism that weaved the institution's sociability. More than a simple scenario of social promotion and expression of the cultural identity of the black elites, the brotherhoods could function as networks that facilitated alliances and intra-ethnic cooperation, comparable to the groups of interest, or lobbies, that operate in the competitive and dynamic capitalist system. Brotherhoods, therefore, can be characterized as spaces of solidarity serving African collective interests and, in this sense, one may talk of a process of appropriation or "Africanization" of the institution.

Compared to the apparent democratization of the brotherhoods of Nossa Senhora do Rosário, which accepted members of several legal status and economic conditions, the ethos of the IBJNR, with its high density of captains and slave masters, seems to have preserved, to a certain extent, the closed and aristocratic spirit of the ancient Iberian confraternities.¹⁴³ In these brotherhoods, the "social and professional status constituted a determinant criterion". Perhaps in the Corpo Santo chapel a similar selective dynamic was also preserved, at least at the level of the brotherhood's directorial board, tone that was based on the ethnic affinities and professional and commercial activities of its members.¹⁴⁴

As warned by Roger Bastide, under apparent forms of acculturation there were hidden forms of counter-acculturation.¹⁴⁵Using more current terms, we could say that black brotherhoods constituted a simultaneous space of "ladinization" and Africanization. There was assimilation in the sense of replicating a preexisting model associated with the dominant Catholic religion, but such an accommodation was also a strategic appropriation that allowed Africans to compete in the market dynamics. Moreover it granted them the chance to stage in the public sphere their political and social theater, which ultimately would bring them new opportunities. Under this perspective, black brotherhoods presented similar characteristics as the cabildos de nación in Cuba. This indicates the reproduction of similar cultural expressions and economic dynamics in various parts of the Atlantic, however resulting from independent social processes.¹⁴⁶

• 1
  Literature about fraternities is extensive. For Brazil, for example: Julita Scarano, Devoção e escravidão: a irmandade de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos pretos no Distrito Diamantino no século XVIII, São Paulo, Editora Nacional, 1978; Caio Boschi, Os leigos e o poder: irmandades leigas e política colonizadora em Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Ática, 1986; Antonia Quintão, Lá vem o meu parente: as irmandades de pretos e pardos no Rio de Janeiro e em Pernambuco no século XVIII, São Paulo, Ana Blume; Fapesp, 2002; João José Reis, "Identidade e diversidade étnicas nas irmandades negras no tempo da escravidão", Tempo, vol. 2, n. 3, Niterói, 1996, p. 7-33; Mariza de Carvalho Soares, Devotos da cor, Rio de Janeiro, Civilização Brasileira, 2000; Lucilene Reginaldo, Os Rosários dos Angolas: irmandades de africanos e crioulos na Bahia setecentista, São Paulo, Alameda; Fapesb, 2011.
• 2
  Compromisso da Irmandade do Senhor Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redempção [approved on December 26, 1913], Bahia, Baptista Costa, 1914, p. 5. See also "A igreja do Corpo Santo", A Tarde, January 6 1934, apud Mons. Manoel de Aquino Barbosa, Retalhos de um Arquivo, Salvador, 1972, p. 92-95.
• 3
  The by-laws of 1913 contain another mistake by informing that the devotion was erected in the church of Conceição da Praia in 1752, because, from 1736 to 1765 this church was demolished and rebuilt. In that period, the Corpo Santo chapel served as the head church of the parish: João da Silva Campos, Procissões tradicionais da Bahia, 2 ed. rev. Salvador, Conselho Estadual de Cultura, 2001 [1941], p. 265. This mistake was corrected in posterior publications: Mons. Manoel de Aquino Barbosa, Efemérides da Freguezia de Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Praia, vol. 1, Salvador, Coleção Conceição da Praia, 1970, p. 43.
• 4
  Miscellaneous papers, Library of the Church Conceição da Praia (BICP), 1774.
• 5
  About Saint Telmo: João da Silva Campos, "Tradições Bahianas", Revista do Instituto Geográfico e Histórico da Bahia (RIGHB), n. 56, 1930, p. 488; João da Silva Campos, Procissões tradicionais da Bahia, 2. ed. rev. Salvador, Conselho Estadual de Cultura, 2001 [1941], p. 365-69.
• 6
  Francisco Vicente Vianna, Memória sobre o Estado da Bahia, Salvador, Tipografia do Diário da Bahia, 1893, p. 334-35. Amédée François Frézier, Relation du Voyage de la Mer au sud des Côtes du Chili, du Perou et du Brésil, faites pendant les années 1712, 1713 et 1714, Amsterdam, Chez Pierre Humbert, 1717, t. 2, p. 536. About the maritime hospital: Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU), Conselho Ultramarino (CU), caixa 53, doc. 4.616, ant. 1.735; caixa 56, doc. 4.861, 1.736. See also Luiz Monteiro da Costa, "O Hospital Marítimo e a Confraria do Corpo Santo", RIGHB, n. 86, 1976-77 [1953], p. 27-40. About the demolition of the church of Conceição da Praia: O Noticiador Católico, ano V, n. 205, 1852, p. 143; Geraldo Sodré Martins, Nossa Senhora da Conceição da igreja da Praia, 1765: construção ou ampliação, Salvador, Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia, 1985, p. 17-18. The church is today recognized as national heritage by the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN). For its architectural history see: Paulo Ormindo de Azevedo (org.), Inventário de proteção do acervo cultural da Bahia,vol. 1, Monumentos do município de Salvador, Bahia, Salvador, Secretaria de Cultura e Turismo, 1975, p. 49-50.
• 7
  João da Silva Campos, op cit., p. 265-266; Pierre Verger, Fluxo e refluxo do tráfico de escravos entre o Golfo do Benin e a Bahia de todos os Santos, São Paulo, Corrupio, 1987 [1968], p. 525; Anthony John R. Russell-Wood, "Aspectos da vida social das irmandades leigas da Bahia no século XVIII", In: O bicentenário de um monumento bahiano, vol. 2, Salvador, Coleção Conceição da Praia, 1971, p. 151; Patricia Muvley, The black lay brotherhoods on colonial Brazil, PhD thesis, Columbia University, New York, 1976, p. 292; Kátia Mattoso, Bahia: a cidade do Salvador e seu mercado no século XIX, São Paulo, Hucitec; Salvador, Secretaria Municipal de Educação e Cultura, 1978, p. 210; Kátia Mattoso, Bahia: século XIX - uma província no Império, Rio de Janeiro, Nova Fronteira, 1992, p. 401, which states that this brotherhood was "composed exclusively of Jejes"; João José Reis, "Identidade e diversidade étnicas nas irmandades negras no tempo da escravidão", Tempo, vol. 2, n. 3, Niterói, 1996, p. 13; João José Reis, A morte é uma festa, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 1991, p. 55; Maria Inês Cortes de Oliveira, O liberto: o seu mundo e os outros (Salvador, 1790-1890), Salvador, Corrupio, 1988, p. 81. See also, Donald Pierson, Brancos e prêtos na Bahia: estudo de contacto racial, São Paulo, Nacional, 1971 [1942], p. 142.
• 8
  Two versions of the statutes are preserved: a manuscript one, in the Torre do Tombo Archives (ATT), in Lisbon, and a printed one, in the Metropolitan Curia Archive of Salvador: 1. ATT, Lisbon, Chancelaria da Ordem de Cristo, D. Maria I; Comuns 432; Livro 5; f. 51-60: "Compromisso do Bom Jesus das Necessidades Redempção, da cidade da Bahia", Provisão de confirmação de compromisso: 28-08-1778. I would like to thank Lucilene Reginaldo for arranging a copy of that document. 2. Metropolitan Curia Archive of Salvador (ACMS), Est.1; Cx. 32; Cx. Arq. 162-As1; doc. 38: "Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redempção", Lisboa, Oficina de Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo, Impressor da Real Meza Censoria, 1778.
• 9
  For the analysis of controversies between Africans and Creoles in this and other brotherhoods, see: João José Reis, "Identidade e diversidade étnicas nas irmandades negras no tempo da escravidão", Tempo, vol. 2, n. 3, Niterói, 1996, p. 15-17; Luis Nicolau Parés, "O processo de crioulização no Recôncavo baiano (1750-1800)", Afro-Ásia, n. 33, 2005, p. 97-103.
• 10
  João da Silva Campos, Procissões tradicionais da Bahia, 2. ed. rev. Salvador, Conselho Estadual de Cultura, 2001 [1941], p. 265-266.
• 11
  From the 1830s on, the affiliation of freed Africans to lay catholic brotherhoods began to decline: Maria Inês Cortes de Oliveira, O liberto: o seu mundo e os outros (Salvador, 1790-1890), Salvador, Corrupio, 1988, p. 83-84; João José Reis, A morte é uma festa, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 1991, p. 151-152. In the case of IBJNR, there is evidence of decadence after 1855, when there was a cholera outbreak, and the annual procession was no longer celebrated.
• 12
  Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (APEB), Judiciário, Livro de Testamentos n. 4, "Testamento de Francisco Xavier de Jesus", 1814, f. 46ss. He was the master of Luis Xavier de Jesus, a Jeje who had active participation in the slave trade.
• 13
  Besides the board of 1808 (Table 2), of the 26 members of the board in 1830, I could identify the ethnicity of 9 of them - 2 Mina and 7 Jeje: APEB, Judiciário, Livro de Notas n. 236, f. 139.
• 14
  I would like to thank Maria Inês Cortes de Oliveira for providing the nominal list of those Africans who left a will from 1800 to 1888 and for the quantification of their affiliation to several brotherhoods. From a universe of 144 testators members of brotherhoods, 66 (or 46%) named IBJNR. Only 1 of these 66 Africans belonged exclusively to IBJNR; the others belonged to 2 or more fraternities.
• 15
  It is noteworthy that, against the prohibition of the term from 1776, of not "reelecting any treasurer in the board", the former treasurer João Nunes had been replaced by José Machado Godinho.
• 16
  For the onomastic methodology proposed by Italian micro history: Robert Slenes, Na senzala uma flor. Esperanças e recordações na formação da família escrava - Brasil Sudeste, século XIX, Rio de Janeiro, Nova Fronteira, 1999; Walter Fraga Filho, Encruzilhadas da liberdade: histórias de escravos e libertos na Bahia (1870-1910), Campinas, Editora da Unicamp, 2006. For the crossing of micro history and Atlantic history and the collective biography concept: Lara Putnam, "To study the fragments as hole: micro history and the Atlantic world", Journal of Social History, 2006, p. 615-630.
• 17
  APEB, Judiciário, 05/2048/2519/17, "Inventário e testamento de João Nunes", 1808, f. 4, 4v. This granddaughter was named heir with another daughter, Maria da Conceição Nunes, born to his slave Catharina.
• 18
  ACMS, Cachoeira, Livro de Casamento 1765-85, cx. 34, Est. 3, f. 13v. In this marriage record, "Captain João Nunes Silva, deceased" (author's emphasis) appears as the master of Nunes. Maybe it was a mistake made by the scrivener, but it may reflect that he was owned by two masters consecutively.
• 19
  The brotherhood of Bom Jesus dos Martírios of Cachoeira, which like the Corpo Santo one excluded the Creoles, used the same white cape and red pallium, with "a badge made of letters or painted, with the cross of the Lord engraved in it with all of the insignias of the martyrdoms he suffered for the human kind". The brothers of IBJNR used a small cross and coat of arms of white metal. Despite these similarities, the brotherhood of Cachoeira celebrated its festivity on January 15, and the procession on Palm Sunday, while that of Salvador had the procession on May 3, on Crosses Day, also evoking the suffering of Jesus Christ. For the brotherhood of Cachoeira: AHU, Lisboa, Códice 1.666, "Compromisso da Irmandade do Senhor Bom Jesus com o soberano título de Senhor dos Martírios, erecta pelos Homens pretos de nasção Gege, neste Convento de Nossa Senhora do Monte do Carmo da Villa de Nossa Senhora do Rozario da Cachoeira, este anno de 1765"; apud Patricia Muvley, The black lay brotherhoods on colonial Brazil, PhD thesis, Columbia University, New York, 1976, p. 264-265.
• 20
  APEB, Colonial, maço 364-1, Livro de Patentes n. 25, f. 311-312. In the colonial period "entradas" referred to expeditions organized by the authorities or particulars in order to explore the hinterlands, enslave indigenous people or find mines. For more on this military title see below.
• 21
  ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Batismos 1774-1786, ff. 19, 56, 63.
• 22
  Document that is very difficult to read: APEB, Judiciário, Livro de Notas n. 124, f. 333.
• 23
  The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Voyages, n. 48.548. Accesible at: <http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/database/search.faces>. Acessed in April 26, 2014; cf. Arquivo Histórico Nacional de Angola, Luanda, cod. 2.571. I would like to thank Lucilene Reginaldo for the first data on this: personal communication, February 24 and June 13, 2003.
• 24
  APEB, Judiciário, 05/2048/2519/17, "Inventário e testamento de João Nunes", 1808, f. 3.
• 25
  Manolo Florentino; Alexandre Vieira Ribeiro; Daniel Domingues da Silva, "Aspectos comparativos do tráfico de africanos para o Brasil (séculos XVIII e XIX)", Afro-Ásia, n. 31, 2004, p. 106.
• 26
  APEB, op cit., f. 4v. Mattoso considers Nunes to be only a "sailor", but to me this is a simplification of this character: Kátia Mattoso, Bahia: século XIX - uma província no Império, Rio de Janeiro, Nova Fronteira, 1992, p. 626.
• 27
  Nunes and Conceição were both belonged to the brotherhoods of São Benedito in the convent of São Francisco, the Rosário from the Baixa dos Sapateiros and the Rosário from the Conceição da Praia. Touquinho belonged to the Rosário from the Baixa de Sapateiros, but the IBJNR brought all of them together.
• 28
  APEB, op cit.
• 29
  Arquivo do Arcebispado de Luanda (AAL), Benguela, Livro de Óbitos, 1797-1831, f. 60. I thank Mariana Cândido for providing a copy of this record.
• 30
  APEB, Colonial, maço 369, Livro de Patentes n. 30, f. 189.
• 31
  Arquivo Municipal de Salvador (AMS), Livro de Oficinas 1790-1813, f. 21.
• 32
  AAL, Benguela, Livro de Óbitos 1797-1831, f. 60.
• 33
  About this brotherhood, see Lucilene Reginaldo, Os Rosários dos Angolas: irmandades de africanos e crioulos na Bahia setecentista, São Paulo, Alameda; Fapesb, 2011, p. 136-138.
• 34
  Mariana Cândido, An African slaving port and the Atlantic world. Benguela and its Hinterland, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 127, 166; cf. IGHB, DL 32, 02.02: "Relação de Manuel José da Silveira Teixeira sobre os moradores da cidade de São Felipe de Benguela", November 27, 1797, f. 9v. I would like to thank Mariana Cândido for providing the transcription of this record. AHU, Angola, caixa 89, doc 67, Dezember 21, 1798.
• 35
  Judiciário, 05/2048/2519/17, "Inventário e testamento de João Nunes", 1808 (partilha). About the Henriques in Bahia, see, among others, Hendrik Kraay, "Identidade racial na política, Bahia, 1790-1840: o caso dos Henriques", In: István Jancsó (org.), Brasil: formação do Estado e da nação, São Paulo; Ijuí, Hucitec; Unijuí; Fapesp, 2003, p. 521-546.
• 36
  IGHB, DL 32, 02.02, "Relação de Manuel José da Silveira Teixeira sobre os moradores da cidade de São Felipe de Benguela", November 27, 1797, f. 9v.
• 37
  AMS, 88, Licenças 1789, f. 211 apud Richard Graham, Alimentar a cidade. Das vendedoras de rua à reforma liberal (Salvador 1780-1860), São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 2013, p. 94; 357 (nota 6).
• 38
  APEB, Judiciário, 05/2048/2519/17, "Inventário e testamento de João Nunes", 1808 (partilha).
• 39
  Unknown authorship, "Um documento inédito da história do tráfico negreiro", Afro-Ásia, n. 1, p. 124. For the beginning of this movement in 1775: Lucilene Reginaldo, Os Rosários dos Angolas: irmandades de africanos e crioulos na Bahia setecentista, São Paulo, Alameda; Fapesb, 2011, p. 308; cf. AHU, cx. 54, doc. 11.
• 40
  Luis Nicolau Parés, A formação do Candomblé. História e ritual da nação jeje na Bahia, Campinas, Editora da Unicamp, 2006, p. 65; 66; 68; APEB, Cartas ao Governo, 1780-84, maço 176, "Parecer do desembargador ouvidor Geral do Crime a d. Rodrigo José Nunes, 9/11/1784"; apud João José Reis, A morte é uma festa, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 1991, p. 56.
• 41
  APEB, op cit., f. 5.
• 42
  APEB, Judiciário, 05/2048/2519/17, "Inventário e testamento de João Nunes", 1808, f. 5v, 6.
• 43
  John M. Janzen, Lemba, 1650-1930: a drum of affliction in Africa and the New World, Nova York; London: Garland Publishing, 1982.
• 44
  Stephan Palmié, "Ekpe/Abakua in Middle Passage", In: Andrew Apter; Lauren Derby, Activating the past: history and memory in the black Atlantic world, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010, p. 1-44.
• 45
  See Lucilene Reginaldo, "Travessias, trânsitos e conexões de Lepanto à Kalunga: irmandades e devoções negras em Portugal, na América portuguesa e em Angola no século XVIII", text presented in the conference Africanos nas Américas: reconstruindo vidas num Novo Mundo, 1675-1825, University of the West Indies, Barbados, 14 a 16 de março de 2013.
• 46
  He is referred to as general procurator: "Tombo dos bens das Ordens Terceiras, Confrarias e Irmandades da Cidade do Salvador em 1853", Publicações do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia, vol. 7, Salvador, Imprensa Oficial, 1948, p. 89.
• 47
  In January, 1823, he was described as a 70-year-old man: ACMS, Freguesia de São Pedro, Livro de Óbitos 1795-1823, f. 195. The age of six months appears in his will.
• 48
  "Testamento de José da Penha Ferreira, 1810": APEB, Judiciário, Processo Cível 87/3099/16, "Irmandade Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção contra Agostinha Romana de Vargas", 1846-1850, ff. 67ss.
• 49
  APEB, Colonial, maço 364-1, Livro de Patentes n. 25, f. 360.
• 50
  ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Batismos 1774-1786, f. 68. APEB, Judiciário, Livro de Notas n. 125, f. 206. There is another deed of sale, which I could not check because it was out of use: APEB, Judiciário, Livro de Notas n. 129, f. 249.
• 51
  Idem, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Óbitos 1781-1814, f. 10v; Livro de batismos 1774-1786, ff. 68, 96.
• 52
  "Testamento de José da Penha Ferreira, 1810": APEB, Judiciário, Processo Cível 87/3099/16, "Irmandade Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção contra Agostinha Romana de Vargas", 1846-1850, ff. 67ss.
• 53
  Arquivo da Irmandade de Nossa Senhora do Rosário da Baixa dos Sapateiros (AINSRBS), Livro de Irmãos n. 1, f. 216v.
• 54
  About black militia, see: Hendrik Kraay, Race, State and Armed Forces in Independence-Era Brazil: Bahia, 1790s-1840s, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2001. Wage-earning slaves worked as street-vendors, carriers or other occupations and from their weekly profits, they had to pay a fixed sum to their masters.
• 55
  Luis dos Santos Vilhena, A Bahia no século XVIII, vol. 1, Salvador, Itapuã, 1969, p. 246. About capitães de mato, see the chapters by Silvia Hunold Lara and Luiz Mott in João José Reis; Flávio dos Santos Gomes (orgs.), Liberdade por um fio, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 1996.
• 56
  In 1780 José Machado Godinho (treasurer in 1777) was named a corporal in the 2nd Company of the Third Regiment of the Henriques: APEB, Colonial, maço 368, Livro de Patentes n. 29, f. 2. Other brothers who received patent letters as captains for expeditions and assaults: in 1790, Joaquim Cardoso da Costa (will executor of João Nunes), in 1790, Luciano Ferreira de Bettencourt (consultant in 1779), in 1794, José Antonio d'Etra and, in 1793, Agostinho Freire: Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (ANTT), Lisboa, Registro Geral de Mercês de D. Maria I, liv.21, f. 376v; liv.22, f. 254v; liv.25, f. 95v, 245v.
• 57
  AMS, Livrode Carta de Examinações e Officiaies, 1770-1807. On this subject see: Tania Salgado Pimenta, "Barbeiros-sangradores e curandeiros no Brasil (1808-28)", História, Ciências, Saúde - Manguinhos, vol. 5, n. 2, 1998, p. 349-372; Jacimara Souza Santana; Andreilza Oliveira dos Santos, "Sangradores africanos na Bahia do Século XIX (1825-1828)", Sankofa, vol. 3, n. 6, 2010, p. 51.
• 58
  See, for instance, Jean Baptiste Debret, Boutique de barbier ("Tenda de barbeiro"), aquarela, 1821. In Lisbon, the barbers were separated into those who shaved and those who cared for swords: Glaydson Gonçalves Matta, Tradição e modernidade: práticas corporativas e a reforma dos ofícios em Lisboa no século XVIII, Master thesis, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, 2011, p. 40.
• 59
  The initiation process in Afro-Brazilian religions involves the shaving of the novice's head and the practice of several incisions or cuts on the body performed by a priest using consecrated razors and blades. We found barbers such as José Bernardino da Costa Faria, close to the leadership of the Casa Branca and the Gantois temples, Francisco Nazaré and Marcos Rodrigues Soares also in the Gantois, or José Joaquim de Moraes, who was leader of the Bogum temple in the 1860s. The research on barbers and Candomblé is work in progress to be addressed in a future paper.
• 60
  See, for instance, Marieta Alves, "Música de barbeiros", Revista Brasileira de Folclore, vol. 7, n. 17, 1967, p. 5-13.
• 61
  Patricia Muvley, The black lay brotherhoods on colonial Brazil, PhD thesis, Columbia University, New York, 1976, p. 268-269.
• 62
  James Prior, Voyage along the Eastern Coast of Africa, to Mosambique, Johanna, and Quiloa to St. Helena to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco in Brazil, in the Nisus Frigate, London, Sir Richard Phillips & Co., 1819, p. 103 apud João José Reis, A morte é uma festa, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 1991, p. 61.
• 63
  APEB, Livro de Testamentos n. 3, "Testamento de Francisco Nunes Morais", 1811, f.35v; Livro de Testamentos n. 7, "Testamento de Joaquim Felix de Santana", 1814, ff. 35-35v; Livro de Testamentos n. 30, "Testamento de Felipe Botelho", 1843, ff. 168ss.
• 64
  In the 1860s, the music of barber Marcos is referred to as "lundu", inducing people to dance the samba in festivities such as the Lavagem do Bonfim: "Barber Marcos comes in the front/ beating his bass drum/ to a well played lundu/ and everybody dances samba" (Na frente Marcos barbeiro/no zabumba vem tocando/um bem tangido lundú/e toda gente sambando): O Alabama, January 20, 1866, p. 2-3. See also O Alabama, February 22, 1869, p. 3; January 12, 1870, p. 4; January 29, 1870, p. 6-7.
• 65
  ACMS, Freguesia do Pilar, Livro de Batismos 1771-1883, f. 37. His mention as na orchestra leader comes from the Arquivo da Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Salvador: Marieta Alves, "Música de barbeiros", Revista Brasileira de Folclore, vol. 7, n. 17, 1967, p. 11. AMS, Livro de Oficinas 1790-1813, f. 6.
• 66
  APEB, Colonial, maço 367, Livro de Patentes n. 28, f. 32.
• 67
  Idem, Livro de Testamentos n. 3, "Testamento de Francisco Nunes Morais", 1811, ff. 34, 34v, 37-38. ACMS, Freguesia do Pilar, Livro de Óbitos 1807-1824, f. 73. Kátia Mattoso comments this case as an example of prosperous freed man: Kátia Mattoso, "Testamentos de escravos libertos na Bahia no século XIX: uma fonte para o estudo das mentalidades", In:______, Da revolução dos Alfaiates à riqueza dos baianos no século XIX: itinerário de uma historiadora, Salvador, Corrupio, 2004 [1979], p. 248-249.
• 68
  Ibidem, f. 34v, 37, 37v. See João José Reis, A morte é uma festa, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 1991, p. 99-100.
• 69
  Ibidem, f. 37v. "In front of the chapel [of Bonfim], during the nights of prayer and the day of the festivity, the music of master barber Manuel [sic] Francisco Nunes de Moraes was played": José Eduardo Freire de Carvalho Filho, A devoção do Senhor do Bonfim e sua história, Salvador, Typ. de São Francisco, 1923. Francisco had a slave called Manoel who was freed in his master's will (f. 37). If the band leader in the previous citation were indeed Manoel, it would indicate a period after 1811.
• 70
  Marieta Alves, "Música de barbeiros", Revista Brasileira de Folclore, vol. 7, n. 17, 1967, p. 11.
• 71
  Ibidem. AMS, Livro de Oficinas 1790-1813, f. 6. The same year he appears under the category of "wares" and in 1792, Ignacio José [sic] de Sampaio appears under the rubric "barges". AMS, Livro de Oficinas 1790-1813, ff. 14, 39.
• 72
  APEB, Judiciário, 05/2048/2519/17, "Inventário e testamento de João Nunes, 1808".
• 73
  ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Batismos 1774-1786, f. 66.
• 74
  APEB, Livro de Testamentos n. 11, "Testamento de Ignácio Sampaio", ff. 199-202. For the slave burials: ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Óbitos 1781-1804, ff. 107, 127v, 223.
• 75
  In January, 1780, for instance, he was the godfather of 6 slaves of Francisco José Gouvea: ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Batismos 1774-1786, ff. 201, 202v.
• 76
  Marieta Alves, op cit. AMS, Livro de Oficinas 1790-1813, f. 6.
• 77
  ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Óbitos 1781-1804, f. 259v. He also buried the slave Antonio, 30-year-old Jeje, on June 21, 1807: Livro de Óbitos 1804-1810, f. 314v.
• 78
  ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Batismos 1809-1815, f. 278v.
• 79
  "...nine razors, a pair of cissors, a comb, two porcelane washbasins, a metal one, a small mirror, three towels, a stool with its drawer, another one of the same form, and still an old smaller one": APEB, Judiciário, 04/1724/2194/11, "Inventário e testamento de Joaquim Cardozo da Costa", 1826, f. 11.
• 80
  APEB , Judiciário, 04/1724/2194/11, "Inventário e testamento de Joaquim Cardozo da Costa", 1826. The testamentary partition (f. 10) registered the following slaves: Albino, Moçambique, young, music master and barber; Quintino and Vitorino, Nagos, young and flute players; Marcos, Benedito and Francisco, Moçambique, horn players.
• 81
  Idem, Livro de Testamentos n. 30, "Testamento de Felipe Botelho", 1843, ff. 168ss.
• 82
  APEB, op cit.
• 83
  ANTT, RGM/E/105452; Registo Geral de Mercês de D. Maria I, liv.25, f. 245v, Joaquim Cardoso da Costa, Carta Patente. Capitão de entradas e assaltos da Capitania da Baía. Ca. 18/06/1790. There is a previous patent from 1788: APEB, Colonial, maço 375, Livro de Patentes 1788-1789, f. 26.
• 84
  Arquivo Público Mineiro (APM), Casa dos Contos (CC), cx. 144-21332, Requerimentos/Licenças, 17/03/1806. There is the possibility this Joaquim Cardoso was an homonym. However, our character still appears in Salvador in 1807 and 1809 referred to as "captain": ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Óbitos 1804-1810, f. 314v; Livro de Batismos 1809-1815, f. 278v.
• 85
  ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Óbitos 1810-1828, f. 314v. For his identification as belonging to the Jeje (geiges) nation: Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Batismos 1826-1834, f. 111v (October 21, 1827).
• 86
  Eduardo de Castro e Almeida, "Inventário dos documentos relativos ao Brasil existentes no Arquivo de Marina e Ultramar", Anais da Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, vol. 32, 1910, p. 166 (Mars 30, 1767, n. 7583). He died on March 26, 1793: ACMS, Freguesia do Pilar, Livro de Óbitos 1792-1809, f. 8v.
• 87
  Marieta Alves, "Música de barbeiros", Revista Brasileira de Folclore, vol. 7, n. 17, 1967, p. 11. Also mentioned by Carvalho Filho as one of the masters who participated in the festivities of Senhor do Bonfim: José Eduardo Freire de Carvalho Filho, A devoção do Senhor do Bonfim e sua história, Salvador, Typ. de São Francisco, 1923.
• 88
  AMS, Livro de Oficinas 1790-1813. There are records about him up to 1810.
• 89
  ANTT, PT/TT/RGM/E/130240 - Registo Geral de Mercês de D. Maria I, liv. 21, f. 376v. Marieta Alves, op cit., p. 13.
• 90
  APEB, Livro de Testamentos n. 3, "Testamento de Mariana Joaquina da Silva Pereira", f. 32. ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Óbitos 1810-1828, f. 8v.
• 91
  AINSRBS, Livro 1, f. 204v e 287v for his wife.
• 92
  APEB, Livro de Testamentos n. 16, "Testamento de José Antônio d'Etra", f. 100. Besides the IBJNR, he belonged to the Rosário and the São Bendito of Conceição da Praia, the Rosário da Baixa de Sapateiros and São Benedito in the convent of São Francisco: ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Óbitos 1810-1828, f. 314v.
• 93
  ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Batismos 1806-09, f. 162v. Among the godfathers was the Jeje Agostinho Maciel, brother of the IBJNR.
• 94
  Idem, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Óbitos 1804-1810, f. 310v (June 24, 1809) e f. 313 (October 30, 1809).
• 95
  In 1806, Antonia d'Etra appears as judge in the Rosário da Baixa de Sapateiros brotherhood: AINSRBS, Livro 1, f. 71v.
• 96
  APEB, Judiciário, 04/1711/2181/2, "Inventário de José da Costa Faria", 1829. Evidence that he belonged to the IBJNR: ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Óbitos 1828-34, f. 32. In his will Faria leaves, besides more substantial property, 5 brass dishes to shave beards, a case with 17 old and rusty razors and 2 scissors. José da Costa got married a little before he died, in August, 1829, with the Jeje Maria Rosa da Conceição, and they lived in the Direita da Misericórdia street.
• 97
  Idem, Colonial, maço 368, Livro de Patentes n. 29, f. 6.
• 98
  Almanach para o anno de 1845, Bahia, Typ. de M. A. da S. Serva, 1844, p. 247. Afterwards he lived in the Sodré street. For further information about Manoel d'Etra, see João José Reis, Domingos Pereira Sodré: um sacerdote africano. Escravidão, liberdade e candomblé na Bahia do século XIX, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 2008, p. 232; 402. comfort his friendship with Manoel Joaquim Ricardo: João José Reis, "From slave to wealthy African freedman: the story of Manoel Joaquim Ricardo", In: Linda Lindsay; John Sweet (orgs.), Black Atlantic biography, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013, p. 131-145.
• 99
  APEB, Judiciário, 04/1711/2181/2, "Inventário de José da Costa Faria", 1829.
• 100
  Manoel d'Etra participated in other brotherhoods, like the Rosário da Baixa de Sapateiros, where he was a consultant several tiemes between 1833 and 1851, and the Rosário da Conceição da Praia where he was treasurer: AINSRBS, Livro de Irmãos 1850-1876, f. 5; AINSRBS, Livro de Receitas da Irmandade de Nossa Senhora do Rosário da Conceição da Praia 1848-1877, f. 25v.
• 101
  ACMS, Freguesia de São Pedro, Livro de Óbitos 1855-59, f. 316 (September 21, 1856). Between 1854 and 1855, Manoel José is in charge of the music band. Between 1857 and 1860, Olavo d'Etra takes over and, in 1862, Floripes d'Etra. Among the bleeder barbers, there were Adão Cyriaco d'Etra (1854-1863), Henrique d'Etra (1857-1858), Olavo José d'Etra (1858), Leocadio Francisco d'Etra (1862-1863), and Floripes d'Etra (1862-1863): Almanak Administrativo Mercantil, e Industrial da Bahia, 1854-1863. While Adão was probably a slave of Ciriaco José d'Etra (one of José Antonio's freedmen), Olavo, Floripes and Leocadio were probably slaves of Manoel José.
• 102
  Marieta Alves, "Música de barbeiros", Revista Brasileira de Folclore, vol. 7, n. 17, 1967, p. 12; cf. AMS, Livro de Cartas de Exame de Officiaes, 1770-1809 - the license is from October 27, 1808.
• 103
  Facsimile edition of Almanach Civil, Politico e Commercial da Cidadeda Bahia para o Anno de 1845: Typ. de Manoel Antonio da Silva Serva, Salvador, Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia, 1998, p. 246.
• 104
  APEB, Colonial, maço 2.949, Presidência da Província chefes de Policia 1835-1841. On October 30, 1835, Atanásio requests a passaport to Angola and José Bernardino da Costa Faria to "Havana and Angola with scales in Africa": Idem,Colonial, Livro de Passaportes n. 5.883, f. 118. Bernardino circulated in the Afro-Brazilian temples of Casa Branca and Gantois.
• 105
  Idem, Colonial, maço 5.266, f. 62. Published in "Tombo dos bens das Ordens Terceiras, Confrarias e Irmandades da Cidade do Salvador em 1853", Publicações do Arquivo do Estado da Bahia, vol. 7, Salvador, Imprensa Oficial, 1948, p. 89.
• 106
  Idem, Livros de Passaportes n. 5.886, f. 314; n. 5.888, f. 374.
• 107
  Maria Cristina Wissenbach, "Cirurgiões e mercadores nas dinâmicas do comércio atlântico de escravos", In: Laura de Mello e Souza; Junia Ferreira Furtado; Maria Fernanda Bicalho (orgs.), O governo dos povos, São Paulo, Alameda, 2009, p. 281-300; Jacimara Souza Santana; Andreilza Oliveira dos Santos, "Sangradores africanos na Bahia do Século XIX (1825-1828)", Sankofa, vol. 3, n. 6, 2010, p. 56.
• 108
  APEB, Livro de Testamentos n. 30, "Testamento de Antonio Mendes dos Santos", 1843, f. 32v. The passport request to Africa is from 1842: APEBA, Colonial, maço 6.349, Fundo Polícia, 1821-42. The slave Joaquim appears as a bleeder barber between 1854 and 1863: Almanak Administrativo Mercantil, e Industrial da Bahia.
• 109
  APEB, Judiciário, 5/2011/2982/4, "Inventário de Francisco de Nazaré", 1832.
• 110
  The overlap of the jobs of barber, band leader and captain was not exclusive of the IBJNR Africans. See, for instance, the case of the Creole Joaquim Felix de Santana, captain of the Henriques, barber and owner of an orchestra: APEB, Livro de Testamentos n. 7, "Testamento de Joaquim Felix de Santana", 1814, ff. 30-42. See also: Kátia Mattoso, "Testamentos de escravos libertos na Bahia no século XIX: uma fonte para o estudo das mentalidades", In:______, Da revolução dos Alfaiates à riqueza dos baianos no século XIX: itinerário de uma historiadora, Salvador, Corrupio, 2004 [1979], p. 250 et seq.
• 111
  See, for instance, "Testamento de José da Penha Ferreira", 1810, em APEB, Judiciário, Processo Cível 87/3099/16, "Irmandade Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção contra Agostinha Romana de Vargas", 1846-1850, ff. 67ss; Judiciário, Livro de Testamentos n. 19, "Testamento de Rita Rosa de São José", 1830, f. 244-250; Livro de Testamentos n. 4, "Testamento de Joam Gomes Touquinho", 1814, f. 180; Livro de Testamentos n. 11, "Testamento de Ignácio Sampaio", 1823, ff. 199-202; Livro de Testamentos n. 3, "Testamento de Francisco Nunes Morais", 1811", ff. 34v, 37-38.
• 112
  Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, Negros estrangeiros: os escravos libertos e sua volta à África, São Paulo, Brasiliense, 1985, p. 100. About paternalism in the relationships between masters and slaves, see, among others, Sidney Chalhoub, Visões da liberdade: uma história das ultimas décadas da escravidão na Corte, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 1990. About social mobility see, Robert W. Slenes, "A 'Great Arch' descending: manumission rates, subaltern social mobility and the identities of enslaved, freeborn and freed blacks in Southeastern Brazil, 1791-1888", In: John Gledhill; Patience Schell (orgs.), Rethinking histories of resistance in Brazil and Mexico, Durham, Duke University Press, 2012, p. 103-109.
• 113
  The combined entrance of husband and wife in brotherhoods had been identified in other such institutions: Socorro Targino Martínez, Ordens terceiras: ideologia e arquitetura, Master thesis, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, 1979, p. 82ss; 128: apud Lucilene Reginaldo,Os Rosários dos Angolas: irmandades de africanos e crioulos na Bahia setecentista, São Paulo, Alameda; Fapesb, 2011, p. 58.
• 114
  Within the limits of this text, there is no space to examine in depth the processes of "syncretism" or juxtaposition between African religious practices and catholic devotion, though this phenomenon was frequent inside the IBJNR.
• 115
  Maria Inês Cortes de Oliveira, O liberto: o seu mundo e os outros (Salvador, 1790-1890), Salvador, Corrupio, 1988, p. 74.
• 116
  In Brazil "ladino" referred to the African who had learned the Portuguese language and had adapted to local cultural forms, as opposed to the "boçal" who was not yet assimilated. For an interpretation of the concept of "ladinization", see João José Reis, Domingos Pereira Sodré: um sacerdote africano. Escravidão, liberdade e candomblé na Bahia do século XIX, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 2008, p. 316-317.
• 117
  APEB, Judiciário, 04/1511/1980/01, "Inventário de José Gomes da Conceição", 1813, f. 17.
• 118
  APEB, Judiciário, 04/1511/1980/01, "Inventário de José Gomes da Conceição", 1813. The will was written on March 24, 1813. João José Reis, em A morte é uma festa, São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 1991, p. 152, identifies another African man - José Gomes da Conceição, who died in 1827.
• 119
  João Reis is currently researching the theme of slaves that owned slaves in Bahia.
• 120
  AMS, Livro de Oficinas 1790-1813, f. 150.
• 121
  A conto of réis amounted to a million (1.000$000 réis). For the purchase: APEB, Judiciário, Livro de Notas n. 148, f. 126. The widow, Mariana Angélica do Coração de Jesus, ended up selling the house in Saúde for 570$000 réis, on May 22, 1822: APEB, Judiciário, Livro de Notas n. 207, f. 197.
• 122
  APEB, op cit., ff. 41ss.
• 123
  Ibidem, f. 17. Geraldo Roiz Pereira got married in July, 1814: ACMS, Freguesia de Santana, Livro de Casamentos 1783-1818, f. 196v. He became an assistant for expeditions and assaults in 1809: APEB, Colonial, maço 390, ff. 68-69.
• 124
  Between 1755 and 1766, João Ferreira Bittencourt was successively "juiz de fora" of the city of Bahia, scrivener of the Jesuits' embargos, "intendente" and "primeiro ministro da mesa da inspeção" of Bahia and "desembargador intendente geral do ouro": AHU_ACL_CU_005, Cx. 123, d. 9606; Cx. 152, d. 11639, Cx. 157, d. 11945 e 11958; Inácio Accioli, Memórias históricas e políticas da província da Bahia, vol. 5, Salvador, Imprensa Oficial, 1940, p. 588.
• 125
  ACMS, Freguesia do Pilar, Livro de Óbitos 1824-1834, f. 39. The organist was Ignácio Manoel Porcinicula, his second will executor: APEB, Judiciário, 03/1094/1563/03, "Inventário de Geraldo Rodrigues Pereira", 1830, ff. 35, 38.
• 126
  APEB, Livro de Testamentos n. 19, "Testamento de Geraldo Rodrigues Pereira", 1830, ff. 257-63. He was part of the fraternities Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Praia, Rosário da Praia and Rosário da Baixa de Sapateiros. For the later: AINSRBS, cx. 10, doc. 9, Livro de Irmãos, s/d, f. 34v.
• 127
  APEB, Judiciário, 03/1094/1563/03, "Inventário de Geraldo Rodrigues Pereira",1830, ff. 44, 136v, 138, 154, 178 e 191. The will executor França was the owner of many slave ships, all traveling to the gulf of Benin between 1805 and 1828: TSTD, n. 51.442, 51.455, 49.454, 51.472.
• 128
  APEB, Judiciário, 03/1094/1563/03, "Inventário de Geraldo Rodrigues Pereira", 1830, f. 16v, 17, 18v.
• 129
  Ibidem, ff. 29, 33v, 43-44, 88.
• 130
  Idem, Judiciário, Libelo Cível, 16/0541/06 "Francisco Simões contra Maria Angélica Coração de Jesus", 1831.
• 131
  Idem, Colonial, Livro de Passaportes n. 5.878, f. 155 (January 21, 1826).
• 132
  Idem, Colonial, Livro de Passaportes n. 5.879, f. 161 (October 10, 1829).
• 133
  Idem, Judiciário, 03/1094/1563/03, "Inventário de Geraldo Rodrigues Pereira", 1830, f. 32v.
• 134
  Ibidem, f. 179.
• 135
  APEB, Colonial, Livro de Passaportes n. 5.883, ff. 88v (April 28, 1835) e 101 (July 17, 1835).
• 136
  About Joaquim d'Almeida, see Pierre Verger, Os libertos: sete caminhos na liberdade de escravos da Bahia no século XIX, Salvador, Corrupio, 1992, p. 42-48; 116-121.
• 137
  Lucilene Reginaldo, Os Rosários dos Angolas: irmandades de africanos e crioulos na Bahia setecentista, São Paulo, Alameda; Fapesb, 2011, p. 345.
• 138
  ACMS, Est. 1; Cx. 32; Cx. Arq. 162-As1; doc. 38: "Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redempção", Lisboa, Oficina de Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo, Impressor da Real Meza Censoria, 1778.
• 139
  APEB, Livro de Testamentos n. 28, "Testamento de Luis de Campos Souza", 1841, f. 189ss.
• 140
  APEB, Livro de Notas n. 236, f. 139. The involvement of José Marques de Oliveira with the slave trade is suggested by his relationships with José Antonio d'Etra and Luis Xavier de Jesus. The latter, known by his activities in trafficking, was the godfather of one of Marques' daughters: ACMS, Freguesia da Conceição da Praia, Livro de Batismos 1809-1815, ff. 364v (Mars 19, 1814) and 370v (May 30, 1814). This business would explain the wealth that enabled him to accept the debt acquired by the IBJNR.
• 141
  Idem, Judiciário, Processo Cível 87/3099/16, "Irmandade Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção contra Agostinha Romana de Vargas", 1846-1850, ff. 70v-71. The income regarding the houses granted is also transcribed in: BICP, papéis avulsos, 1860. Para outro caso parecido: Idem, Livro de Testamentos n. 22, "Testamento de Jacinta de Araujo Ribeiro", 1830, f. 256v; Livro de Testamentos n. 28, "Testamento de Luis de Campos Souza", 1841, f. 190.
• 142
  Idem, Colonial, maço 5.266, "Livro do Tombo dos bens de todas as Ordens Terceiras, Confrarias e Irmandades da Cidade do Salvador em 1853", ff. 62, 69-71v. For another case of estate grant to fraternities, see: Idem,Judiciário, Livro de Testamentos n. 6, "Testamento de Joaquim Nunes de Gouvea", 1816, f. 194.
• 143
  About the "democratic" character of the brotherhoods of the Rosário: Lucilene Reginaldo, "Travessias, trânsitos e conexões de Lepanto à Kalunga: irmandades e devoções negras em Portugal, na América portuguesa e em Angola no século XVIII", text presented at the conference Africanos nas Américas: reconstruindo vidas num Novo Mundo, 1675-1825, University of the West Indies, Barbados, Mars 14 to 16, 2013.
• 144
  The quote is by Didier Lahon, O negro no coração do Império. Uma memória a resgatar - séculos XV-XIX, Lisboa, Colecção Entreculturas, 1999, p. 59-60.
• 145
  Roger Bastide, Sociología de la religión, Madrid, Ediciones Jucar, 1986.
• 146
  Matt D. Childs, "Retaining and recreating African ethnic identities in nineteenth-century Cuba: the role of Havana's Cabildos de Nación in forging diasporic cultures", text presented in the conference Africanos nas Américas: reconstruindo vidas num Novo Mundo, 1675-1825, University of the West Indies, Barbados, Mars 14 to 16, 2013.
• Translated by Thais Ianarelli & Jamie Andreson, with author's contribution

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  2014

History

• Received
  08 Jan 2014
• Accepted
  08 Mar 2014