List of Tables  ix

Acknowledgments  xi

Introduction  1

Part One  

1. From Ethiopia to Guinea  19

2. Commerce with the Mina Coast  40

3. African "Nations" and Provenience Groups Gallery of Illustrations  67

Gallery of Illustrations  101

Part Two  

4. Urban Life and Brotherhoods in the City  113

5. Constructing a Religious Norm  146

6. Conflict and Ethnic Identity among Mahi  183

Postscript  223

Appendix  241

Notes  249

Bibliography  293

Index  309

Co-Winner, 2012 Roberto Reis Book Award, presented by BRASA

“This book... provides considerable insight into the social organization and customs of slaves in the colonial city.”—Elizabeth Kuznesof, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“[T]his work will certainly serve as a new foundational text…. In addition, the analysis of identity and the terminology used to describe it will be of interest to scholars of subaltern groups both within and outside the field of African diaspora studies. Although the analysis is complex, the translation is excellent, serving to make the text accessible to scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates.”—Elizabeth W. Kiddy, The Americas

“People of Faith tells a complex story of the ways in which African peoples in the diaspora developed social bonds and organized collective associations that cultivated and promoted a common cultural and social identity… [I]t offers a useful new framework through which students and scholars in the field of African diaspora can understand cultural development and identity formation.” —Mariana L. R. Dantas, American Historical Review

“Soares’ exceedingly skilful exegesis of sources provides a vivid picture of the Mahi nation. With People of Faith she wrote an enjoyably readable and greatly instructive book, now also accessible to a non-Portuguese reading audience. As such, it will join the classic works by Stuart Schwartz, A. J. R. Russel-Wood, and Mary Karash on Brazilian urban social life, lay brotherhoods, slavery, and freed black people.”—Jorun Poettering, Iberoamericana

“The Portuguese version, entitled Devotos da Cor, was a popular success in Brazil and the English edition merits a prominent place in both the literature of Afro-Latin American religious history and the ongoing study of the subtle and changeable meanings of ethnicity in Africa and the Americas.” —Nicole van Germeten, Hispanic American Historical Review

“[A]n important contribution to the scholarship on the Luso-Brazilian slave trade and slavery in Brazil.”—Ana Lucia Araujo, Slavery and Abolition

“Soares has written a noteworthy contribution to the study of Africans in colonial slave society.”—Carole Myscofski, The Catholic Historical Review

“This very fine work will serve as a model for the burgeoning history of Roman Catholic confraternities in colonial Latin America.” —Sabine Hyland, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

Co-Winner, 2012 Roberto Reis Book Award, presented by BRASA

“This book... provides considerable insight into the social organization and customs of slaves in the colonial city.”—Elizabeth Kuznesof, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“[T]his work will certainly serve as a new foundational text…. In addition, the analysis of identity and the terminology used to describe it will be of interest to scholars of subaltern groups both within and outside the field of African diaspora studies. Although the analysis is complex, the translation is excellent, serving to make the text accessible to scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates.”—Elizabeth W. Kiddy, The Americas

“People of Faith tells a complex story of the ways in which African peoples in the diaspora developed social bonds and organized collective associations that cultivated and promoted a common cultural and social identity… [I]t offers a useful new framework through which students and scholars in the field of African diaspora can understand cultural development and identity formation.” —Mariana L. R. Dantas, American Historical Review

“Soares’ exceedingly skilful exegesis of sources provides a vivid picture of the Mahi nation. With People of Faith she wrote an enjoyably readable and greatly instructive book, now also accessible to a non-Portuguese reading audience. As such, it will join the classic works by Stuart Schwartz, A. J. R. Russel-Wood, and Mary Karash on Brazilian urban social life, lay brotherhoods, slavery, and freed black people.”—Jorun Poettering, Iberoamericana

“The Portuguese version, entitled Devotos da Cor, was a popular success in Brazil and the English edition merits a prominent place in both the literature of Afro-Latin American religious history and the ongoing study of the subtle and changeable meanings of ethnicity in Africa and the Americas.” —Nicole van Germeten, Hispanic American Historical Review

“[A]n important contribution to the scholarship on the Luso-Brazilian slave trade and slavery in Brazil.”—Ana Lucia Araujo, Slavery and Abolition

“Soares has written a noteworthy contribution to the study of Africans in colonial slave society.”—Carole Myscofski, The Catholic Historical Review

“This very fine work will serve as a model for the burgeoning history of Roman Catholic confraternities in colonial Latin America.” —Sabine Hyland, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

“Among the many fine works on Atlantic slavery and the African diaspora published by Brazilian historians in recent years, People of Faith stands out as a particularly innovative and important study of great interest to an English-speaking audience. One of the qualities that distinguishes it from related studies is the way that Mariza de Carvalho Soares carefully works her way through the sparse documentary evidence, allowing the reader to follow her interpretive method and to understand how she arrives at particular conclusions.”—Barbara Weinstein, author of For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in São Paulo, 1920–1964

“The questions of cultural continuities and African identities in Brazil have become central to the understanding of slavery and of Afro-Brazilian life. This book, centered on one group of the so-called Mina nation in Rio de Janeiro, presents one of the best-documented, most perceptive discussions of these issues in the context of the Catholic society of Brazil. Here we can see clearly that cultures and identities were often layered and complex and adapted to local realities. This book is required reading for anyone interested in the African diaspora and questions of cultural continuities and creations.”—Stuart B. Schwartz, Yale University

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