In a patriarchal society marked by racial and ethnic differences, the confraternity is made up exclusively of black women, which gives this Afro-Catholic manifestation — as some consider it — a certain fame.

It is known both as an expression of Brazilian baroque Catholicism, with its distinctive street processions, and for its tendency to include in religious festivals profane rituals punctuated by a lot of samba and banqueting.

The former slaves have demonstrated enormous adroitness in worshiping in the religion of those in power without letting go of their ancestral beliefs, as well as in the ways they defend the interests of their followers and represent them socially and politically.

While the sugar economy was experiencing difficulties, tobacco gained new strength when it attracted the interest of German capital following the political independence of Brazil.

The opening of motorized shipping lines strengthened the breeze of economic renewal, stimulating the integration of the Recôncavo with the provincial capital and increasing trade.

This exceptional state of affairs resulted in a large number of religious and civil initiatives by the slaves, among them, perhaps, the Irmandade da Boa Morte.

Antônio Moraes believes that one of the probable leaders of the Islamic Revolt, Luiza Mahim, was personally involved in the founding of the confraternity after her flight from Salvador to the Recôncavo.

One such correspondence from 1854 comes from a local deputy who wrote to the justice department requesting reinforcements to handle the Festival of Our Lady of the Good Death which was set to take place in Salvador.

Luiz Cláudio Nascimento, an historian from Cachoeira, says that the first liturgies of the black Sisterhood were held in the Church of the Third Order of Carmo, traditionally used by the local elites.

The religious confraternities of the 19th century — like the secular ones such as the Society for the Protection of the Handicapped, a case studied by the anthropologist Julio Braga — did more than revere Catholic saints and the orixás, or Afro-Brazilian divinities, of their members.

As respected organizations of solidarity, they were at the same time living expressions of inter-ethnic exchange and an ambiguous instrument of social control, whose participants were creative "managers".

One-off membership and annual fees, alms collected and other forms of income were used for a variety of purposes: purchases of freedom from slavery, festivals, religious obligations, payments for masses, charity, clothing.

[4] The sisters have also pushed issues of African resilience from their early years and have made it their mission to assure that all black lives could be filled with dignity.

Candomblé lent elements of its belief system to a practice that was originally Catholic, as well as socio-historical components of the hard reality of slavery, of a captivity that made martyrs of those in the diaspora.

Veneration of Our Lady of the Good Death came to have social significance as it allowed slaves to gather, maintain their religiosity in a hostile environment and shape a corporate instrument for defending and valuing of individuals.

At the beginning of August a long schedule of public events brings people from everywhere to Cachoeira, to what Moraes Ribeiro considers the most representative living document of Brazilian, baroque, Ibero-African religiosity.

Suppers, parades, masses, processions, samba-de-roda (a traditional form of playing and dancing the samba in a circle) put the confraternity in the center of events in this provincial city and, ultimately, in the main newspapers and news networks of the capital.

[7] The significance of the color white is linked to both Mary’s purity and to the Candomblé deity Oxalá who is associated with the dawn and the creation of the universe.

[7] After the parade and mass, the food that they prepared the day before is completed and a feast is held for the members of the town and visitors who travelled to watch the celebration.

[6] Many of the foods and drinks served in the days following the Feast of the Assumption have Candomblé and Brazilian roots including cachaca or sugarcane rum and caruru which is a blend of okra, nuts, and shrimp.

[3] The full festivities end when the sisters go to the river and make an offering of food and flowers which also is an action rooted in the Candomblé tradition.

They all share the tasks of cooking, collecting funds, organizing ceremonial suppers, processions and the funerals of members according to religious precepts and unwritten statutory regulations.