The Books
As each of us individually conducted research on a specific Atlantic traveler, collectively we read these books and used them as our navigational tools to sail the Atlantic's historiographical waters. The books' histories and stories guided us through our own process. Each of the following books features a unique, comprehensive approach to the early modern Atlantic world and the people who traversed it. Their authors provided us physical, conceptual, and narrative maps that we used to navigate our own understanding of the global Atlantic world. These books also offered us a set of concepts to understand and interpret the world our travelers inhabited and the challenges and opportunities they encountered in their journeys. Scott and Hébrard’s “micro-history set in motion,” Sparks's "Atlantic Creoles," Restall and Fernández-Armesto's "armed entrepreneurs," Sweet’s “Black Atlantic,” Jasanoff's "spirit of 1783," Pérez Morales's "masterless Caribbean," and Colley's "biography that crosses boundaries" offered us fruit for thought and nourished our weekly discussions.
The Books
As each of us individually conducted research on a specific Atlantic traveler, collectively we read these books and used them as our navigational tools to sail the Atlantic's historiographical waters. The books' histories and stories guided us through our own process. Each of the following books features a unique, comprehensive approach to the early modern Atlantic world and the people who traversed it. Their authors provided us physical, conceptual, and narrative maps that we used to navigate our own understanding of the global Atlantic world. These books also offered us a set of concepts to understand and interpret the world our travelers inhabited and the challenges and opportunities they encountered in their journeys. Scott and Hébrard’s “micro-history set in motion,” Sparks's "Atlantic Creoles," Restall and Fernández-Armesto's "armed entrepreneurs," Sweet’s “Black Atlantic,” Jasanoff's "spirit of 1783," Pérez Morales's "masterless Caribbean," and Colley's "biography that crosses boundaries" offered us fruit for thought and nourished our weekly discussions.
The Books
The Books
Ramusio Map (1534). Courtesy of John Carter Brown Library
James Sweet, Domingos Álvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011)
By April Townson and Serena Uliano
James Sweet’s Domingos Álvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World uncovers the previously unknown life of Domingos Álvares, an African-born man who, as a slave and as a free man, practiced traditional spiritual and healing rituals that eventually forced him into the Portuguese Inquisition. The son of Sakpata priests in the African kingdom of Dahomey, Domingos was a self-made man. Due to broader socio-political attacks on Sakpata traditions, among others, in Dahomey that threatened the sovereign’s power, Domingos was enslaved in 1728. He endured the plights of the Middle Passage roughly until he disembarked in Brazil in 1732. Domingos’ first stop was in Pernambuco, Brazil, where he worked as a slave on a sugar plantation. In 1733, his owner sent him to Recife, Brazil, a more urban area, which allowed him to practice his Sakpata beliefs and rituals more freely. In 1737, a different master purchased him and he then moved to and lived in Rio de Janeiro, where he caused a stir in the local community. Working in the city made it much easier for him to practice his healing rituals, and he eventually saved enough money to purchase his freedom sometime between 1738 and 1740.
His freedom came with new risks. Without the protection of his master, church officials now investigated his healing practices. In 1740, Domingos left Rio de Janeiro after a vicar raided his house, and he ended up in São Domingos. There, he established his own healing center and altar, gaining a group of followers and healing several important figures in the local community. He formed a new community and possibly got married during this period, although the evidence is uncertain. As in Rio de Janeiro, however, Domingos’ practices continued to cause suspicion within the Church. In 1741, the Inquisition in Portugal reviewed his case, and in March 1742, they issued a warrant for his arrest. After his imprisonment in a Rio de Janeiro jail for several months, he was forced to sail to Lisbon, Portugal in September. During his trial, the inquisitor found him guilty of witchcraft and exiled him to Castro Marim in southern Portugal in 1744. Once he arrived in Castro Marim, he returned to his healing practices. He soon left, however, due to feeling extreme ostracization from the community. In the mid-1740s, Domingos traveled the Portuguese countryside, practicing healing and divination, and forming community connections whenever possible. However, he could not run for long without bringing too much attention to himself. In 1747, authorities arrested him in the town of Silves. He endured another Inquisition trial and was then exiled to Bragança in northern Portugal, but no documentary evidence survives to show how, or even if, he made it there; Sweet assumes he died while traveling.
Domingos Álvares's Atlantic Trajectory. From the late 1720s to the 1740s, Domingos traveled throughout the Atlantic world, distinguishing himself at each of his stops. Image from Sweet, Domingos Álvares, 3.
Nossa Senhora da Gloria. Near this Baroque-style Catholic church, Domingos healed his followers and practiced voudun. Image from Sweet, Domingos Álvares, 110.
Through his healing practices, Domingos Álvares exploited the connections between religion and politics that surrounded his early modern Atlantic world. Domingos’ healing and religious practices were deeply interconnected, forming a stark contrast with Western medicine and religion. At the same time, there were many medicinal qualities to how Domingos healed, and many Catholics who turned to him found the psychological aspects of ritual powerful. The fact that Domingos Álvares was able to gain a following of both men and women who were black and white Brazilians – and Portuguese – shows that there was some level of agency available to Africans in the Atlantic world. By practicing his spiritual beliefs, he gained power and economic success and survived two Inquisition trials. Together, his experiences reveal how he contested European imperialism at its core, challenging its political and economic ideals, its family structure, its religion, and its medicine based on particular European scientific practices.
Procession of the Auto da Fé through Lisbon: As a prisoner in 1744, Domingos marched in this procession to hear his sentencing by the Portuguese Inquisition. Image from Sweet, Domingos Álvares, 180.
Ultimately, Domingos Álvares’ life is an exceptionally revelatory case in the realm of Black Atlantic history, a way of approaching the history of the Atlantic world through a particularly Africa-centered perspective. His experiences show how much African politics, economics, and beliefs influenced and shaped the Atlantic world, to the point where the history of Brazil itself became part of the history of Africa. During his life, Domingos had to mask his beliefs, and especially in Portugal, had to mask them as Catholic practices. Still, throughout his journey, he never denied his African origins or tried to truly blend religious practices, revealing how his African identity persisted through decades of enslavement and imprisonment.