From its discovery in 1500, Brazil has been a hub for human trafficking in South America.From about 1600 to 1850, some 4.5 million enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil; this is ten times as many as were trafficked to North America and far more than the total number of Africans who were transported to all of the Caribbean and North America combined.1

In 1550, Brazil became a major importer of African slaves, making slaves an estimated 38.3 percent of the population of Rio de Janeiro, its capital city.2This pattern continuedas nearly four million slaves were imported into Brazil during its colonial era.In a 2010 Brazil census, it was found that 97 million Brazilians, or 50.7% of the population, now define themselves as black or mixed racemaking African-Brazilians the official majority for the first time.3ABOLITIONThe enormity of the slave trades foothold in Brazilwas so far-reaching, that the nation largely failed to develop an effective anti-slavery movement, even while many other nations around the world were making revolutionary reforms. Throughout the 1700s and early 1800s, slavery was being weeded out in the British Empire, North America, and France. Brazil, however, still had nearly one and a half million slaves with the number of slave imports only accelerating at 5.7%.4It wasnt until the late 1800s that reformist activities began to foment at institutions of higher learning. Young lawyers, students, and journalists started to urge their fellow Brazilians to follow the example of the liberation of the slaves in North America. In 1873 Joaquim Nabuco began his fight against slavery in Brazilinspiring the formation of the Brazilian Anti-Slavery Society. He declaredthat there is no freedom nor independence in a land with one million, five hundred thousand slaves!5The struggle for total abolition kept moving forward under his leadership, and finally on May 13, 1888, the imperial family passed Lei Aurea,the Golden Law, making Brazil the last nation in the Western Hemisphere to formally abolish slavery.6THE AFTERMATHEven after the slave trade was abolished, years of exploitation continued to have profound effects on Brazilian society, including deep social divides and the widespread expansion of prostitution. Ever since the late 19th century, prostitution has been part of the cultural landscape in the early period of Brazils modernization and urbanization, as slave or ex slave women turned to offering sexual services for survival.7Such long-standing slavery in Brazil created a vast lower class and extreme inequalities. According to theCIA World FactBook, 21.4% of Brazils 196.6 million inhabitants live below the poverty line.8