Professor Russell-Wood's detailed studies of Brazilian social history in the colonial era have long been recognised as model contributions to the history of class, race, gender and religion. This collection combines work on particular persons and groupings with survey articles on the role of the port and the frontier in colonial Brazil and on its historiography. The author describes the administration and structure of government, and the realities of royal power, with examples drawn from the port cities and the mining townships of the interior, then moves on to examine the interplay of class, religion and race with reference to brotherhoods of persons of African descent and the racially exclusive Third Orders. One group who overcame legal, physical and social constraints were women who, whether of European or African descent, contributed decisively to the economy and society of Brazil. To conclude, there are accounts of three individuals, each of whose experiences illustrate facets of the judicial system, governance and education in Portugal's richest colony. Les etudes detaillees du professeur Russell-Wood sur l'histoire sociale bresilienne durant la periode coloniale ont longtemps ete reconnues comme un modele de contribution A histoire des classes, des races, des genres et des religions. Cette collection allie des travaux au sujet d'individus specifiques et de groupements A des resumes d'enquA te sur la rA'le du port et de la frontiere dans le Bresil colonial et dans son historiographie. L'auteur decrit l'administration et la structure gouvernementale, ainsi que les realites du pouvoir royal, s'appuyant d'exemples tires des cites portuaires et des communes minieres de l'interieur. Il passe ensuite A l'examen de l'interaction des classes, des religions et des races en faisant reference aux liens de fraternite qui unissaient les personnes de descendance africaine, ainsi qu'aux Troisiemes Ordres qui pratiq
