republican movement in Maranhão, in 1835, stated that all of his followers were devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary. He was seen 'carried along in a chair in the arms of black men freeing them from slavery [...] with the procession carrying a selection of church images and vestments' (Santos, 1983, pp. 88, 96-102, 111, 118-119, 132; Araújo, 2008). Soon, many examples emerged. In 1847, enslaved people of Bantu origin devoted to Saint Anthony became involved in a vast conspiracy in various municipalities of the Paraíba river valley in Rio de Janeiro and southern Minas Gerais (Slenes, 1991-92, p. 64). On another occasion, in 1849, rebels in the town of Queimado, in Espírito Santo, were convinced by their leader that their parish priest would persuade their masters to free them on Saint Joseph's day (Cláudio, 1979). Saint Anthony reappears in São Paulo in 1882, by which time Africans, Bantu and others, found themselves in the minority. Before the revolt took place, a complex conspiratorial network was discovered involving leaders who distributed a 'drink brewed from roots' to protect the body, with an image of Saint Anthony as part of rituals attended by the region's slaves. These rebels sought freedom by means of a syncretic religious language, very similar to what would become known as Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian religion which is still very popular today (Machado, 1994).