[1] Barata graduated from the University of Coimbra, where he studied surgery, philosophy and mathematics and was introduced to Enlightenment ideas that were popular in academia at the time.

Together with professor Francisco Muniz Barreto and others, he was a member of the first Masonic Lodge in Brazil, the "Knights of the Light Shop", founded in Salvador in 1797.

He gained prominence as a member of a movement, Conjuração Baiana, that wanted independence for Brazil and the end of slavery.

[1] After this point, he became a cane farmer in the town of Abrantes (current Camaçari) and continued practicing as a doctor.

Shortly after his arrival he started a newspaper called Sentinela da Liberdade (Sentinel of Liberty).