Introduction

Numerous black religious brotherhoods or lay Catholic confraternities – made up of enslaved and manumitted as well as free-born Afro-descendants – were formed in Brazil during the colonial (1500-1822) and imperial (1822-1889) periods. With the goal of promoting Catholic devotional practices, these brotherhoods took on an important role in developing solidarity among their members. People coming from different ethnic groups in Africa, along with free and enslaved blacks born in Brazil, made up these confraternities, mainly under the advocation of Nossa Senhora do Rosário (Our Lady of the Rosary). Officially legalized through their own bylaws and with the approval of the Portuguese Crown and the Church, these brotherhoods were the only possible way for black men and women to congregate within a slave society, of which Brazil was the largest in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In Latin America, confraternities of the Rosary spread across Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, and Uruguay. In Brazil, high numbers of lay confraternities began to appear under this denomination. The Jesuit priests in Portugal's overseas colonies were largely responsible for the creation of Rosary confraternities in plantations and sugar mills, as well as the dissemination of Marian devotion. In São Paulo, Father José de Anchieta erected the first confraternity of the Rosary in the sixteenth century. Likewise, the Franciscans played a prominent role in spreading this devotion in other parts of the country. Eduardo Hoornaert writes about two Capuchin friars who founded Rosary confraternities in Rio de Janeiro thanks to the catechetical work developed within African communities.

These brotherhoods followed the model of white Portuguese organizations in Brazil. They were stratified according to the colonial social structure with white brotherhoods for the colonial elites holding greater status than black confraternities of enslaved and free/d blacks or indigenous groups.