The Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Benedict of the Black Men and the Holy House of Mercy in the disputes over the privilege of using skiffs in colonial Rio de Janeiro (17th and 18th centuries)

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the conflicts and disputes over the privilege of using a skiff between the brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Benedict the Moor and Santa Casa da Misericórdia [the Holy House of Mercy] in Rio de Janeiro. It aims to demonstrate that the wooden object used to carry the bodies of the deceased from the house to the grave was a significant element of the pompous funerals in the funeral processions that traveled through the streets of the city. Based on documentation from the Overseas Council, commitments from both brotherhoods and parish registers of deaths and wills, it analyses how the privilege of using tombs and skiffs held by the Misericórdia do Rio from the beginning of the 17th century was an element of discord between the two associations until the middle of the 18th century, in a process of legal disputes that crossed both sides of the Portuguese Atlantic to safeguard privileges, precedence and hierarchies in that society.