By the end of the 18th, we have a capital city. So here we have our 4 hills that marked the original boundaries of the city. Here’s our reference, St. Antonio. These are the points of the Afro Rio Walking Tour. Now let's take a look at our 5 black pins over here. These mark the churches of the Black Brotherhoods:

• Our Lady of the Rosary (1700-1725; rebuilt in 1968)
• St Rita (1720-1721) not a Black Brotherhood church; we will come back to this location later in presentation
• Our Lady of Lampidosa (1742-1748; rebuilt in 1930)
• Staints Elisbão and Efigênia (1740-1754), and
• São Domingos, very important but not built until 1791 and no longer exists

It was this construction in the first half of the 18th that doubled the city. This creates an “African District,” a Black side of town. In other words, Africans did in about 50 years, what it took Europeans 200 years to do.

So, who were these Africans? We know how they got here and we know under what circumstances they got here, but where did they come from? Who were they?