Freemasons and the Republican Movement (1870-1910)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to apprehend and to rescue the activity of Brazilian Free-Masonry between 1870 and 1970, when happened intense debates searching to build a new national identity. It was looking for civilization and progress, expressed in defense of conscience freedom, abolition of slave work and the republic. The Brazilian Free-Masonry, with its peculiar organization, knew, at that time, an important growing of its activities around all the country. The sociability proporcionated by Free-Masonry lodges, purring together expressive sectors of the society, ended up to transform them in important spread centers discussing on the republican project.