Bahía de São Salvador
de Todos os Santos
Currently known as Salvador, the capital city of Bahía, the Northeastern region of Brazil, was a major port city during the importation of west and central African slaves during the slave trade. Today it serves as the most thriving cultural center for Afro-Brazilian traditions.
The Portuguese colonists of Brazil had conquered a new land that was vast and rich. This enabled the Portuguese to begin to cultivate agricultural plantations that were not possible in their native land. With this focus on agriculture the settlers used captured Indian slaves as their primary labor force. The majority of these slaves were of the Tupinamba or Tupi tribe. These slaves proved to be inefficient workers of the land. They were a rough semi-nomadic people who did not possess the same work performance efficiency as the African slave. Thus, the Portuguese began to increase the number of imported African slaves to replace the ineffective Tupi. The slave population grew tremendously to the point of 60,000 Africans imported during the year of 1848 and a grand total of no more than five million over four centuries of importation.
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