Slavery in Brazil
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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
Slavery
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Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a slave or an enslaved person.
Flogging a slave fastened to the ground, illustration in an 1853 anti-slavery pamphlet
A poster for a slave auction in Georgia, U.S., 1860
Portrait of an older woman in New Orleans with her enslaved servant girl in the mid-19th century