Ingenuity of Letters

What do authors and publishers like Machado de Assis Cruz e Sousa José do Patrocínio André Rebouças Francisco de Paula Brito and Luís Gama have in common? Apart from the fact that they were black men contemporaries and existing in a period when slavery was still present these men were men of letters and constituted a black intellectual elite in the middle of the 19th century. Engenho de Letras is an attempt to understand through the trajectory of some important names in Afro-Brazilian literate society what elements beyond their own individual capacity favoured the formation of these men considered exceptional and launched them with ingenuity and determination on a path that would bequeath their names to national and international history. Despite the academic approach this study is not just aimed at academia but at any reader interested in the subject.