Born Then1550–1799
Life during the Plantation slavery in Brazil
Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.
What it meant for ordinary people
From the mid-1500s Portuguese settlers in Brazil grew sugar, and later mined gold, with the labour of enslaved Africans and Indigenous people. Brazil took more enslaved Africans than any other place in the Americas. Many enslaved people ran away to quilombos, the largest being Palmares.
Deaths: Brazil received about 4.9 million enslaved Africans, more than any other country; death rates on sugar plantations were very high.
How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.
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