Strategies of "good death": Testamentary practice and funeral rites of freed slave (Mariana, Minas Gerais, c.1735- c.1780).
Testament; Funeral rites; Freed slave; Hierarchies; Minas Gerais.
We have as interest in this search to study the funeral rites present in the wills of freed slaves, residents in Mariana, Minas Gerais, from the years of c. 1735 and c. 1780. The use of this instrument of last will, in the eighteenth-century society of Minas Gerais, enabled the faithful to try to obtain the salvation of the soul, in order to escape eternal damnation in Hell; or at least, if it were not possible to go straight to Paradise, a short stay in Purgatory. Each individual, according to their interests, resources and value orientations, sought to weave strategies in their attitudes toward uncertainty in the proximity to death. In this moment of planning both earthly life and the future post-mortem dwelling, we believe that understanding the actions of these freed slaves the captivity of "good death" practices, especially with regard to the social hierarchies present in the preparations for death, to discover the means by which they have used the codes of the white and free world for better living conditions, and only thus can they be at peace with themselves, when they leave this world.