O slave trade it was an activity carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries. African prisoners were bought in the coastal regions of Africa to be enslaved on the European continent and the American continent. This forced migration resulted in the arrival of millions of African captives in Brazil. Trafficking began to be prohibited on Brazilian lands only in 1850, through the Eusébio de Queirós Law.
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How the slave trade happened
How the slave trade started
The development of the slave trade in Brazil is associated with the installation of sugar production that happened in the country, in the middle of the 15th century. Overseas trafficking in Africans, with the aim of enslaving them, is directly related to the permanent need for workers in the gadgets and also with the decrease of the indigenous population.
Since the beginning of colonization of Brazil For Portugal, the indigenous people suffered from enslavement, but a series of factors made the indigenous population begin to decline. First, the violence of this enslavement, but the most relevant factor in the decline of the indigenous population was the
questionbiological, since the indigenous people had no biological defense against diseases such as smallpox.This, however, did not end the enslavement of indigenous peoples, but it did make an alternative emerge. Also, there was the issue of conflicts between settlers and the church, since the church, through the Jesuits, they were against the enslavement of indigenous, as they considered them potential targets for religious conversion.
Another relevant factor is the strangenesscultural that existed in this relationship, as the indigenous people worked enough to produce what was necessary for the sustenance of their community.
The European logic of work to produce surplus and wealth was not part of the indigenous way of life and this made Europeans pejoratively classify indigenous people as “inappropriate” for work. the constants leaks of the indigenous people, who knew the land very well, was also another relevant factor.
The last factor that explains the beginning of the slave trade was the functioning of the economic system itself. mercantilist. In the logic of this system, the overseas slave trade was a businessrelevant both for the metropolis and for colonists who launched themselves in this undertaking.
Within the functioning of the colonial slave system, the existence of the slave trade met a demand for slaves from the colonies and, as it was a highly profitable activity, it served the interests of the metropolis and the Cologne.
This is because Portugal's involvement in the trafficking of Africans, with the aim of enslaving them, was a business that had existed since the mid-fifteenth century. The Portuguese had a series of trading posts on the African coast and bought Africans there to send them as slaves to work on the plantations installed on the Atlantic islands.
In conclusion, the current understanding of historians regarding this matter is that the scarcity of indigenous labor and the installation of a business that had a high demand for slaves – the production of sugar – generated a demand for other labor, and the Portuguese traders, identifying this need, expanded the slave trade to dimensions gigantic.
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How the slave trade worked
The slave trade involving Europeans started in the 15th century, when the Portuguese set up trading posts along the coast of the African continent. In these factories, the Portuguese maintained contact with the African kingdoms, establishing diplomatic relations that enabled them to maintain trade, which included the sale of human beings. Over time, other European nations began to get involved in this activity and not just the Portuguese.
The trafficking of Africans carried out by the Portuguese, at first, served their internal needs and those of their Atlantic islands. In the 15th century, Africans enslaved by Portugal were used in urban services, especially in Lisbon, and were used in the production of sugar in the Atlantic islands of Portugal (such as the Azores and Wood).
With the development of sugar production in Brazil, the demand from Portugal and from the colonists installed in Brazil increased considerably and, already in the 1580s, about three thousand Africans disembarked in Brazil|1|. Despite being mostly concentrated on the African coast, the Portuguese managed to penetrate Central Africa and create important relationships with several kingdoms.
Among the main Portuguese factories on the African coast is the one built in Luanda, located in Angola. Historian Roquinaldo Ferreira states that Luanda fulfilled “a fundamental role as a center of formulation and execution of military operations against African kingdoms, and as a basis for intense diplomacy between Europeans and Africans”|2|.
Slaves were acquired by traffickers who obtained prisoners by buying them if they were prisoners of war, or by ambushes carried out by the traffickers themselves. The Africans, after being taken prisoner, were taken on foot to the ports where they would be resold to the Portuguese (or other Europeans). At these ports, Africans were branded with a hot iron to identify which merchant they were from.
In these ports, the African prisoners were exchanged for some valuable merchandise, which could be tobacco, cachaça, gunpowder, among others. After being sold to some European merchant, the Africans boarded the ship that would transport them to America or Europe. This ship was called the tumbler, because it was a place where many of the slaves on board died.
Travel on slave ships
Representation of the cellars that housed Africans enslaved in slave ships.
Slave ships, in general, carried, on average, 300 to 500 Africans who were trapped in cellars on a journey that went on for weeks. Departing from Luanda, the trip to Recife took 35 days, to Salvador it took 40 days and to Rio de Janeiro it took 50 to 60 days.
Travel conditions were extremely inhumane, and the few reports that exist of how Africans were brought to the Americas reinforce this. The place in which Africans were imprisoned (the basement) was generally so low that Africans did not they could stand upright and the space was so tight that many had to stay in the same position for a long time course.
THE food was scarce and it boiled down to one meal a day. Historian Jaime Rodrigues points out that at the beginning of the travels (when the possibility of revolt by the Africans was greater), the slavers gave an even smaller amount of food, to prevent them from rebelling|3|.
The water was also almost never potable and the food available was beans, flour, rice and jerky. Poor diet, mainly due to the lack of a diet rich in vitamins, caused diseases such as scurvy (caused by the lack of vitamin C) to proliferate. Other diseases also spread through the filth of the places that housed the Africans. The cellars were dark, dirty, and overcrowded with people, so that even breathing was difficult.
Other diseases that raged on the slave ships were smallpox, measles and gastrointestinal diseases. THE average mortality was ¼ of all Africans shipped|4|. Of course there could be variations in death rates, with some trips having fewer deaths and others having a higher death toll.
The accounts rescued by historians already suggest the racist motivation of Europeans in the slave trade. An example was brought by historian Thomas Skidmore with the account of Duarte Pacheco, a navigator Portuguese who called Africans “people with dog faces, dog teeth, satyrs, savages and cannibals|5|.
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slave trade in Brazil
Africans were sold and information such as age, sex and origin was important when selling them.
The slave trade to Brazil started around the 1550s, for reasons explained above. The overseas slave trade in Brazil extended for three centuries and ended only in 1850, when the Eusébio de Queirós Law. In the 1580s, the slave trade was already a well-established activity in Brazil and had its role increased in the mining period.
After Brazil conquered its independence, in 1822, the trafficking of Africans was intensified until its definitive ban, and, throughout the period of existence of this business, Brazil was the country that most received Africans for enslavement in the world. The number of Africans brought to Brazil and America is the subject of intense study by historians.
The historian Boris Fausto|6| stated that about 4 million Africans were forcibly brought to Brazil. Thomas Skidmore|7|, presenting data from Philip B. Curtin says that the total number of Africans brought were from 3.65 million. Reviewing these numbers has led historians to conclude that the total number of slaves brought in approached 5 million.
Historians Lilia Schwarcz and Heloísa Starling|8| stated that the number of Africans brought here was 4.9 million. Felipe Alencastro|9| states that this number was 4.8 million. These last two statistics mentioned are the most recent within historiographic production. It is estimated that between 11-12 million Africans were brought to America.
Ruins of the Valongo Wharf, where millions of Africans were disembarked in Rio de Janeiro.
The regions from which the greatest number of Africans were brought to Brazil were senegambia (Guinea), during the 16th century, Angola and Congo, during the 17th century, and coast of mine and Benin, during the 18th century. During the 19th century, the British prohibited Brazil from trafficking Africans from places above the equator.
Altogether, Angola accounted for 75% of the total disembarkation of Africans in Brazil, and in the first half of the 19th century, a large number of Africans sent to Brazil were from Mozambique|10|. The people from which the Africans came were varied, highlighting Bantu, nagos, hausa, fast etc.
The colonists had a preference for slaves from different peoples, as this made it difficult for them to organize and rebel against slavery. The places that most received landings of enslaved Africans were Rio de Janeiro, savior and Recife, and then they could be purchased and shipped to different locations in Brazil, such as Fortaleza and Belém, for example.
The slave was an item with a very high price, and the historian Boris Fausto reported that a colonist took from 13 to 16 months to recover the amount that was spent. After the mining cycle began, the price of slaves went up and around 30 months of work so that the amount spent was recovered|11|.
The traffickers paid taxes at the customs established in the ports for every African over the age of three and on the sale of the African. Information such as sex, age and origin was relevant. Enslaved Africans were bought to work in the fields, plantations or even in domestic work. With the discovery of gold in Minas Gerais, a large number of Africans were sent to work in the mines.
The slave trade existed in Brazil until 1850, after a long period, and the prohibition of this business only happened due to pressure from the English and the threat of war against England due to Bill Aberdeen. This English law of 1845, allowed British vessels to invade the territorial waters of Brazil to hunt slave ships.
The prohibition of the slave trade took place through the Eusébio de Queirós Law, approved in 1850, and with it, the government began a strong repression of trafficking, causing this practice to end quickly. After the approval of the law, around 6900 slaves were landed in Brazil until 1856|12| and after that the activity was definitely over.
Summary
The slave trade began in Brazil due to the continuous need for slave labor and was a direct result of the decrease in the number of indigenous slaves.
The slave trade was an extremely lucrative activity and served the interests of the Crown, Portuguese and colonists.
The Portuguese presence on the African continent took place through trading posts, which allowed them to create commercial ties with different African kingdoms.
Africans obtained into slavery were prisoners of war resold or were captured in ambushes devised by traffickers.
The main Portuguese factory installed in Africa was Luanda, and Angolan slaves accounted for 75% of the total landed in Brazil.
The Africans came to the tumbeiros, imprisoned in terrible conditions in the holds of ships on voyages that lasted from 1 to 2 months.
Brazil received approximately 4.8 million Africans enslaved during three centuries of trafficking.
Trafficking in Brazil was only banned by British pressure that resulted in the approval of the Eusébio de Queirós Law, in 1850.
|1| SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloisa Murgel. Brazil: a biography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 81.
|2| FERREIRA, Roquinaldo. Africa during the slave trade. In.: SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and GOMES, Flávio (eds.). Dictionary of slavery and freedom. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2018, p. 55.
|3| RODRIGUES, Jaime. Slaveship. In.: SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and GOMES, Flávio (eds.). Dictionary of slavery and freedom. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2018, p. 344.
|4| Idem, p. 347.
|5| SKIDMORE, Thomas E. A History of Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1998, p. 32.
|6| FAUSTO, Boris. History of Brazil. São Paulo: Edusp, 2013, p. 47.
|7| SKIDMORE, Thomas E. A History of Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1998, p. 33.
|8| SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloisa Murgel. Brazil: a biography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 82.
|9| ALENCASTRO, Felipe. Africa, numbers of the Atlantic traffic. In.: SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and GOMES, Flávio (eds.). Dictionary of slavery and freedom. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2018, p. 60.
|10| Idem, p. 60.
|11| FAUSTO, Boris. History of Brazil. São Paulo: Edusp, 2013, p. 46-47.
|12| ALENCASTRO, Felipe. Africa, numbers of the Atlantic traffic. In.: SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and GOMES, Flávio (eds.). Dictionary of slavery and freedom. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2018, p. 57.
by Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
