✊🏾⁣🇧🇷 Afro-Brazilian History Lesson 📖

✊🏾⁣🇧🇷 Afro-Brazilian History Lesson 📖 ⠀⠀ ⠀

Brazil received more Africans than any other nation, ten times the amount as the 🇺🇸.⠀ ⠀
According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 🇧🇷 received an estimated 𝟒.𝟗 million Africans across the 15th & 19th century.⠀ ⠀

The Valongo Wharf operated for three centuries becoming the biggest entry point for enslaved Africans. Most were young men between the ages of 13-20. On arrival, captives were physically examined, quarantined to recover & gain weight, before being sold.⠀ ⠀
Those who died on the journey were buried at the Cemiterio dos Pretos Novos (New Blacks Cemetery). Bodies were fully or partially burned to make room for expected casualties.⠀ ⠀
Once sold enslaved Africans were forced to work in either: Rural or Urban work.⠀ ⠀
Rural work involved gold, mining, coffee, or sugar plantations. Urban work involved domestic labor, wet nurse duties, or special trades. They were allowed to cultivate fruits/veggies to sell on days off but required to give a majority of sales to their enslaver (any remaining profit was used to buy back their freedom)⠀ ⠀

Those who escaped established communities know as “𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐨𝐬“ – African settlements on small plots of lands that are still inhabited today.

African influence is found in all areas of what makes 🇧🇷 the “𝐏𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚” or “Little Africa”:⠀ ⠀ Sports: Capoeira an Afro-Brazilian martial arts, developed in Quilombos as a form of self-defense. To go unnoticed it was practiced w/ music & slow movements.⠀
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Religion: Candomblé, a religion based on African beliefs, Candomblé means ‘dance in honor of the gods’.⠀ ⠀

Music: Samba, meaning “Spiritual daughter” in the Bantu language. ⠀

From 1850 to 1871 several laws were placed to initiate the end of slavery: “Lei Eusebio Queiroz” which prohibited slave trade, “Lei do Ventre” stating all children who were born from an enslaved mother were free, & “Lei dos Sexagenarios” which freed all slaves over the age of 60.⠀ ⠀
In 1888 slavery was abolished making 🇧🇷 the 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 ⁣𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝, 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲. 📸 NPR