Jews in Colonial Brazil

Book excerpt: Relates the history of Portuguese Conversos who settled in Brazil at the beginning of the 16th century, after they had been forced to convert in Portugal in 1497. States that most of them continued to maintain Jewish customs secretly in Brazil, as they had in Portugal. Ch. 2 (p. 12-42) describe the activities of the Inquisition in Brazil between 1591-1618, due to the intensification of these activities after the unification of Portugal and Spain in 1580. The Inquisition was never formally introduced in Brazil, but about 1580 the Bishop of Bahia acquired Inquisitorial authority which permitted him to prepare judicial proceedings against heretics and to hand over violators of the law to the court of the Inquisition in Lisbon. Pp. 143-167 describe cases of persecution endured by specific Conversos between 1654-1822, until Brazil's independence from Portugal.