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Children of God's fire: a documentary history of black slavery in Brazil

Introduction

Robert Conrad in his work has documented the history of slavery of the black people in Brazil with the help of legal; documents that hold historical value. The main theme of the work focuses on the trend of black slavery in the region and how it eventually lead to the emancipation in the area, bringing ease and freedom for the black people.

Discussion

Arrival of Portuguese

The arrival of Portuguese in Brazil occurred in the 1500 and it took them more than fifty years to establish a strong economy in the region. The reason behind this was that Portugal was doing excessively well in Asia and Africa; generating huge profits and attention from the traders and merchants. A proper setup of bureaucracy was established in the region in the year 1549 to fight back the British and French attacks in the region, who was in to making colonies at that time and Brazil was their hit target (Conrad, 2010). One aspect that tempted them was the well production of sugar in the region, and by the mid 1500s, the Northeast region of Brazil was thronged with sugar plantations where the locals worked and earned minimalist wages. Initially the Indians were asked to provide labor for working in the plantations, but the intense weather and working conditions made it difficult for the Indians to adjust, and they either fell sick or died due to the intense environment. The European environment did not suit them at all. Another trouble was that at times the Indians would flee and could never make it back to the plantations due to unknown routes and fell victim to death in the thickly populated forests. It is then that the Portuguese realized that Indians cannot survive the living conditions in the region and they are not suitable to work in such conditions as they were causing the Portuguese loss in both labor and work.

Slave Trade

The Portuguese were always active in slave trade in the Atlantic region and slavery was not a big issue for them, as they had generated huge revenues from the business. Having a strong hold in the business since 1450s, the Portuguese decided to bring Africa slaves to the region to work in the sugar plantations as labor force and in no time, the plan was given a practical shape and the entire work load was shifted to the African slaves who were brought to the region (Conrad, 2010). The slaves from Africa were brought to Brazil in the year 1530 and the trend was kept active until slavery was abolished in the region in the year 1888, making it about three centuries of black slavery in Brazil.

In these three centuries, the largest recorded number of African slaves was brought to the region, surpassing the number of African slaves in America as well, making Brazil one of the most notorious places for African slaves on ...