Indigenous people were the first slaves in Brazil. The settlers stopped using indigenous people as slaves due to them spreading disease to their owners. The settlers then decided to utilize Africans as slaves. The first ship of African slaves arrived in Brazil around 1570. Brazil was ultimately the last place to eradicate slavery and it was not completely enforced until the 1850’s. Between 1570 and 1850 four to five million Africans had been shipped overseas to endure the life as a slave on plantations, mines, and in the cities of Brazil. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the definition of slavery is “Someone who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for that person without pay.” In this essay …show more content…
However, many Jesuits had problems with how the settlers were exercising slavery. The settlers would sometimes attack the mission villages and capture as many Indians as they could, which caused many to also flee. When the settlers switched from using indigenous people as slaves they still used religion as an excuse to capture and enslave Africans. Sadly, Manoel’s worst nightmares had come true and the settlers continued to use religion as a way to justify …show more content…
In the book Brazil: Five Centuries of Change the economy of Brazil started out as a trading post and their first export was Brazilwood. In the book The Brazil Reader the Indians would cut it down and carry it to the trading ships themselves only to receive a pitiful shirt or the lining from some clothing of very little worth. Brazils’ most prospering crop was sugar cane that grows within humid zones. For more than a century Brazil was the world’s leading sugar exporter. The cultivation and processing of cane involved labor with force which was far beyond what the settlers could provide. Their need for labor was fulfilled by slavery or forced labor. First the settlers went after the indigenous people, but in turn got sick from their many diseases. The settlers then turned to Africans to enslave. In the book Children of Gods fire, Andreoni explains how greedy the settlers are with their slaves. Adreoni tells us how some owners have very little concern for their slaves’ salvation that they do not have them baptized. The slaves that do have the opportunity to be baptized do not know who their creator is because their owner does not teach them or let them attend mass to learn about God. The slaves’ owner said that they were incapable of learning anything, but that is in the fault of their owner because they refuse to educate their slave. On holy days the slaves’ owner