From ethnicity to race and gender: transformations of black lay sodalities in Salvador, Brazil.

Black lay sodalities functioned as a very special type of voluntary association for enslaved women and men of African descent in Brazil during the slavery regime.(1) Every African-born slave was obliged to be baptized as a Roman Catholic before or upon arrival in Brazil.(2) Conversion to Christianity immediately gave enslaved Africans equal spiritual rights with the prosperous white laity in the eyes of God; it allowed them to marry in church, to attend mass, and to receive confirmation in the faith by visiting bishops. They were also free to participate in various religious…