Ilha dos Frades has preserved vegetation of the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica), including native Brazil wood.

The island had streams too small to support sugar cane cultivation; the tenant farmers only raised cows and pigs and grew subsistence crops.

The Ilha dos Frades played an important part in the illegal slave trade in Bahia in the 19th century.

[2][3] Franklin Américo de Meneses Dória, the Baron of Loreto, was born on the Ilha dos Frades in 1836.

Gabriel Viana, a plantation owner, ruled the island in the manner of a feudal lord during the República Velha, or First Brazilian Republic (1889-1930).