Slavery in Brazil began long before the first Portuguese settlement. Later, colonists were heavily dependent on indigenous labor during the initial phases of settlement to maintain the subsistence economy, and natives were often captured by expeditions of bandeirantes. The importation of African slaves began midway through the 16th century, but the enslavement of indigenous peoples continued well into the 17th and 18th centuries. Europeans and Chinese were also enslaved.
Slavery in Brazil by Jean-Baptiste Debret (1834–1839). Two enslaved people enduring brutal punishment in 19th-century Brazil.
Engenho in the Captaincy of Pernambuco, the largest and richest sugar-producing area in the world during Colonial Brazil
Recife was the first slave port in the Americas.
Domingos Jorge Velho, a notable bandeirante
Colonial Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal. During the 300 years of Brazilian colonial history, the main economic activities of the territory were based first on brazilwood extraction, which gave the territory its name; sugar production ; and finally on gold and diamond mining. Slaves, especially those brought from Africa, provided most of the workforce of the Brazilian export economy after a brief initial period of Indigenous slavery to cut brazilwood.
The brazilwood tree, which gives Brazil its name, has dark, valuable wood and provides red dye
Historical centre of Salvador in 2007 – the architecture of the city's historic centre is typically Portuguese.
17th-century Jesuit church in São Pedro da Aldeia, near Rio de Janeiro
View of a sugar-producing farm (engenho) in colonial Pernambuco by Dutch painter Frans Post (17th century)
