O protagonismo de mulheres africanas nas minas setecentistas: a perseguição religiosa a Ângela Maria Gomes e a documentação de 1759 a 1772

Abstract

This article analyzes the protagonism and strategies of resistance employed by Black women from the Mina Coast in colonial Brazil, focusing on the captaincy of Minas Gerais during the eighteenth century. Based on two primary sources, an inquisitorial accusation against Ângela Maria Gomes (1759) and her appointment as queen of the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary of Black People (1772) , the study explores how African religious practices became spaces of survival and reinvention under moral and spiritual control imposed by the Church and the Holy Office. Engaging with historiographical debates on Afro-Brazilian religiosity and inquisitorial repression, this research reveals how, even under surveillance, these women used ancestral knowledge, faith, and leadership to reconstruct their identities within a context of domination.