Country: Brazil

Group: Black-Brazil

Date: 11/13/2020

Team 3: Alexa Hager (lead), Arisha Khan, Thomas Chia

Content Warning: slavery

Approximate Time Period: 1500-1888

There is evidence to confirm that the Black-Brazilians have experienced forced labor and still experience it. Although it was difficult to find information in more recent times regarding the group and forced labor, there was a large amount of information from the colonial period (1500 – 1815) regarding African slavery in the Americas. The evidence quality was rated a 2.

The Black- Brazilian ethnic, indigenous group makes up 4.2% of the Brazilian population. Slavery has existed in Brazil for many centuries. From the 1500s to the 1860s, Brazil was the largest destination for African slaves in North America. With the vast majority of Brazilians having at least some African heritage, African Brazilians have a well established and embedded history in the country which is rooted in the historical importation of enslaved Africans (Minority Rights, n.d.).  It is estimated that around 3.65 million enslaved Africans were brought into the country in the seventeenth century, following the killings of many indigenous groups in the country (Minority Rights, n.d.)

Because Brazil was so heavily populated with slaves, a racial hierarchy was built. Skin color determined the status of African descendants born in Brazil and lighter-skinned slaves had a higher chance of freedom and social mobility. Many slaves worked in gold mines, sugar plantations, and to produce tobacco, textiles, and cachaca (Wikipedia, 2020). The items produced were often traded for more slaves in Africa (Wikipedia, 2020). Forced labor was and is still a prominent factor of Brazil’s economy. Slavery in Brazil was not abolished until 1888, making Brazil the last country in the Western world to abolish slavery (Wikipedia, 2020).

The data is rated as a 2 because the sources included were not research articles but rather from wikipedia. There was sufficient evidence that the Black-Brazilians were forced labor and most likely continue to be. However, sources fail to provide evidence of current slavery of Black Brazilians depsite details of enslaved labor within the past 20 years.

Sources

  1. Minority Rights Group (n.d.). Afro-Brazilians. Retrieved November 6, 2020, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/afro-brazilians/
  2. Wikipedia (2020). Slavery in Brazil. Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Brazil
  3. Klein, H. S. (1986). African slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean. Oxford University Press.