How Rural Slaves Lived And Worked On Brazilian Sugar Plantations Essay

To begin with, England found an important cash crop in the Caribbean. Sugar cane was introduced to the tropical environment of the Caribbean after Christopher Columbus landed in the New World. Sugar is native to southeastern Asia. Later, the Portuguese brought sugar to Brazil. Today Brazil is the lead producer of sugar.

Throughout the 16th century, as there was a demographic collapse of the indigenous population, there was now a new demand for slave labor in Latin America. In Brazil, the Portuguese needed a large workforce to cultivate sugar plantations. As a result, numerous slaves from Africa were imported to work on large plantation fields. In various plantations, rural slaves experienced harsh working and living conditions. Few slaves had a high life expectancy. Robert Edgar Conrad in “Children of God’s Fire,” shares some primary sources that dealt with the types of environments and conditions many slaves faced and encountered in Brazil. The sources also gave insight into the regulations and economics/business of the slave trade. Conrad states that rural Brazil was “a hell for blacks” (Conrad 54). Many slaves dealt with extremely harsh conditions just to keep the European market in Latin American growing and profitable. This paper will analyze how rural slaves lived and worked on Brazilian sugar plantations.

Brazil lacked the large work force provided by the greater Amerindian population of Mexico. The Amerindians of Mexico were already familiar with working for native overlords, making the transition to working under a Spanish overlord a relatively smooth process (Suchlicki 31). To compensate for the lack of an indigenous work force, the Portuguese began to bring African slaves into Brazil as early as 1433. Out of the total population of the Brazilian colony in 1585 numbering some 57,000 people, 14,000 were African slaves (Burns 49). Although the Spanish who colonized Mexico were by no means innocent of enslaving Africans, the large numbers of Amerindians provided the bulk of the work force on Mexican plantations (Suchlicki 31).

One thing being disease, such as malaria. Christopher Columbus introduced the “Columbian Exchange”, an exchange of pathogens, causing 90% of people to die off. The Portuguese captured many Tupi Indians and either killed them off or they died of the flu. Since the native people had never been exposed to disease before, they would die off quickly once exposed. When they began digging for gold and silver in North America, they needed people to do the work for them. They could not enslave the indigenous people anymore since they had mostly died off, so they brought over 9 million African American slaves who had already been exposed to disease and had a likely chance of surviving. The Portuguese also used slaves to produce sugar. There were 4-5 million slaves brought to Brazil over a span of about 200 years. Many Portuguese men mated with the slaves, and this is the reason that Brazil’s population is so diverse today. There was such a demand for slaves that they become a major part of trade. The Europeans were trading slaves as well as trading fish, grain, and cheap textiles to feed and clothe the slaves. The reason for this is that the slaves mainly produced sugar, cotton and tobacco, not their own food or textiles. This concept is termed “peculiar

Between 1800 and 1865, slaves lived in the Southern States and worked in the tobacco, wheat, rice, corn and cotton plantations. Essentially, slavery was an economic institution with far-reaching benefits to slaveholders, since the value of slave labor was considerably more than the cost of their maintenance. Demands for democratization, respect for human dignity and American Civil War presented a major turning point in the institution of slavery as farmers turned to lesser labor-intensive production methods such as the use of Eli Whitney 's Cotton Gin. This paper analyzes different ways in which institution of Slavery affected the development of American South between 1800 & 1865, and the lives of people living in the region. In doing so the paper considers economic, political, social and cultural implications of the institution.

The sugar trade was positively impacted by a rapidly increasing demand for sugar, along with the European desire to colonize the Caribbean islands, and the growing ease of purchasing slaves as a means of labor. As more sugar was being produced, the demand for it in Europe grew at an extremely swift rate. The production of the sugar was taking place in the Caribbean, which at the time was being colonized by major European nations such as England, France, and Spain. These islands were the ideal location for the growth of sugar cane, which was the basis for the manufacturing of sugar. To help supply the high demand for sugar, there was a rise in the use of slaves as a cheap and efficient method of labor.

2. Natives worked on the plantations. Slaves from Africa were brought over to Brazil when the native workers died. Eighty-two percent of the population in Brazil trace their ancestry back to the days of slavery.

Because certain forms of slavery had existed for centuries on the continent of Africa, Brazilian historians used to say that blacks imported from across the Atlantic were docile and ready to accept their new status as slaves. This assertion is based on the unwarranted assumption that was true of a limited area of Africa was typical of the continent as a whole.

The portuguese had been experienced when it came to slave labor. They had created many sugar plantations in their territories long before Columbus had discovered the New World. After the discovery of the New World there were many plantations. Perhaps the best discovery yet was in the city of Potosi. They produced 85% of the world’s silver. The Spanish who obtained all this wealth was not very intelligent with it. They were fighting many expensive wars and

Next year sees the 120th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Brazil. Some contemporary writers saw the period as an horrific maltreatment of our fellow human beings while others saw through this and viewed the patriarchal and familial advantages that society, especially slaves received. Whichever way one sees it, the period before its abolition saw a huge boost in Brazil’s economy, mainly down to its vast manpower – 37% of all African slaves traded – a massive 3 million men, women and children.

During Brazil’s first few decades of colonialism, the Portuguese decided that to control the population they would directly enslave them. Captured native people were the ones that labored on the first sugar mills. Native slavery was abolished in Brazil in the 1570s but exceptions were made if a Native was captured during “just war”. Although a loophole existed that allowed for Natives to still be enslaved, by the 1590s it didn’t matter because they were

This paper is will explore the differences in the treatment of slaves in Latin America and North America and compare these systems to underground slavery today.

Brazilwood was a key product for Portuguese trade. But the focus on timber would soon change. Cash crops in the form of sugar cane production became the focus. Slavery was needed for the growing of sugar cane and replaced the unsuccessful usage of native people for labor. “Regular slave trade between Brazil and Africa was begun in the 1550s as a temporary measure to replace the Indians decimated by war and disease, but it lasted for over 300 years, and the institution of slavery persisted until 1889, Brazil being the last country of the American hemisphere to abolish it.” The agricultural focus of sugar cane changed to coffee bean production in the late 19th century. As coffee began to take off, slavery was abolished. With the influx of Africans halted, foreign immigration was promoted. This would have a profound effect on the societal make-up of the colony. Mass migrations were already occurring as the Portuguese had established their minute South American empire. Between 1884 and 1920 three million immigrants, mainly Italian, entered the country. Portuguese, Germans, Italians, Spanish, Britons, the descendants of African slaves and the products of racial mixtures of Brazilian Indians, Europeans, and Africans would be the kin of those who football would become entrenched within.

In the early sixteenth century, the Portuguese began to colonize in Brazil as part of an overseas expansion plan that began along the western coast of Africa. Brazilian settlements had begun to manage the cultivation, manufacture, and marketing of sugarcane and sugar. Native American slaves was initially the labor foundation of which

In 1500's the Portuguese, led by explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral, arrived in Brazil. One of the first measures taken by the new arrivals was the conquering of the local population, the Brazilian Indians, in order to allow the Portuguese slave labor (for sugarcane and cotton). The experience with the Indians was a failure. The Indians quickly died in captivity or fled to their nearby homes. The Portuguese then began to