Atlantic slave trade to Brazil

The Transatlantic slave trade to Brazil (c. 1500s-1860s) was a time when people from Europe wanted more resources like sugar and metals from the Americas. To get these resources, many Africans were taken from the western coast of Africa. About 10 to 30 million Africans were sold and transported across the Atlantic to work, mostly on farms. About 44 percent of these people were brought to Brazil.

The trade happened in four main periods. The first was the cycle of Guinea in the 16th century. The second was the cycle of Angola in the 17th century, which involved people from Bakongo, Mbundu, Benguela, and Ovambo. The third was the cycle of Costa da Mina, later called the Cycle of Benin and Dahomey from the 18th century to 1815. This brought people from Yoruba, Ewe, Minas, Hausa, Nupe, and Borno. The last period was illegal and happened after 1815, when the United Kingdom tried to stop the trade. To avoid anti-slavery blockade ships, Brazilian traders started using routes near Mozambique.

Early history

The slave trade had existed in Africa for thousands of years before Europeans arrived during their Age of Discovery. The Portuguese started by helping to free captured people, but later began taking people from Africa to work in Brazil. This changed the way slaves were traded, with Europeans taking more control.

Not only Europeans were involved in the slave trade. Mixed-race people, free Black people, and even former slaves also helped trade people along the coast of Africa. They also helped connect different cultures during this difficult time. One well-known trader was Francisco Félix de Sousa, who was freed at age 17 and became a major trader.

The motive of trafficking – the sugar economy

Beginning around 1530, people learned how to make sugar on islands like Madeira and São Tomé. When Brazil started growing sugar, the Portuguese wanted to build many sugar mills. But they had trouble finding enough workers, and they didn’t have enough money to build the mills. Also, diseases were making many native people very sick.

Because of this, the Portuguese made rules that made it harder to take native people as workers. They looked for other places to get workers from. Later, the Dutch took over some sugar areas in Brazil and also looked for more workers. The need for workers to grow sugar, cotton, coffee, and tobacco led to many people from Africa being brought to Brazil to help with the work. They brought their own traditions, music, and beliefs, which became part of Brazilian culture.

The first slaves and the legalization of slavery

The Portuguese leaders allowed slavery with support from religious leaders. They believed this would help bring more people to their beliefs and also fill a need for workers, as many people in Europe were sick from diseases. Before Europeans started this trade, some African groups already practiced slavery and saw trading with Europeans as a way to earn more.

The first known record of African slaves being sent to Brazil was in 1533. A leader in Brazil asked the king for 17 enslaved people for his area. Later, in 1559, the ruler of Portugal allowed plantation owners in Brazil to bring in up to 120 slaves each, if approved by the main leader of the region.

How Africans were enslaved

Main article: Atlantic slave trade

When Portuguese explorers reached Africa, they found that some Africans were already captured for many reasons. People might be taken because they were prisoners from wars, or they could be used to pay back debts. Sometimes small groups were taken from villages, or a person might be traded for food or as a gift to a leader.

The journey to the coast where they were sold was very dangerous, and many people did not survive. The trip across the ocean was also very hard, and many people suffered greatly. The treatment they faced later in the new lands was even harder.

British pressure to abolish the slave trade

When Brazil became independent from Portugal, the United Kingdom required Brazil to agree to stop bringing in slaves from Africa. This led to the British-Brazilian Treaty of 1826, where Brazil promised to end this trade by 1830. However, Brazil did not strongly enforce this promise.

In response, the United Kingdom passed the Slave Trade (Brazil) Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 122), allowing British ships to stop and inspect Brazilian vessels suspected of carrying enslaved people. Many in Brazil disliked this, feeling it was an unfair interference in their country’s matters. Still, Brazil decided it could not fight Britain over this. So, in September 1850, Brazil made new laws against the slave trade and started to enforce them.

Resistance

Some enslaved Africans managed to escape and create settlements called quilombo. One famous example was the Mola quilombo, home to around 300 freed people. It was led first by Felipa Maria Aranha, and later by Maria Luiza Piriá. The community worked like a republic, with everyone voting on decisions. Over time, it grew to include four more settlements in the area, known as the Confederação do Itapocu. Historians see this as a strong example of standing up against unfair treatment.