Strategies and social mobility: the access of descendants of slaves and freedmen to the secular clergy in bishopric of Rio de Janeiro (1702-1745)

Abstract:

The article seeks to analyze the process of social mobility of African descendants of slaves and freedmen in Portuguese America, highlighting the strategies executed by family groups in order to overcome the macule imposed by slavery. In this sense, the role of the ecclesiastical career in hierarchical slave societies based on values derived from the Old Regime is privileged.

Keywords:
Strategies; Social mobility; Family; Secular clergy