Building Communities: The Brotherhoods Of Blacks and Pardos in Colonial Brazil and Goiás

Abstract

This essay will examine one of those associations, the lay brotherhood of blacks (or pardos), which was organized by those of African descent in colonial Brazil and the captaincy of Goiás. Themes to be elaborated here include origins; membership, including ethnic and racial identity; the saints of their devotion; activities, such as fundraising and assistance to those in need; and relations to church and state, including elections of kings and queens. Historical studies now point to the rich associational life that those of African descent created in Brazil and the rest of the African Diaspora, and the captaincy of Goiás shared in that tradition that enabled slaves to survive the trauma of enslavement and create their own communities and cultures.