National Geographic : 2002 Aug
/.^ - ATLANTIC OCEAN MA Batad ata do Forte Il/ha de r" The cradle o modern Brazilian civilization is the country's own fertile crescent, a broad band of dark, rich soil called the Reconcavo that surroundsBaia de Todos os Santos, or All Saints Bay. In the early 16th century Portuguese settlers established plantationsin this region, where slaves-atfirstIndian, then African workedfields of sugarcane,coffee, and tobacco. The wealth they generatedenriched Salvador,Brazil'sfirst capital.By 1850 the city's port had received an estimated3.5 million slaves,far more than the 430,000 sent to the United States duringits slave-tradingera. This hits me hard:My great-grandfatherwas born into slavery in Alabama. Hefounded afarming community in MississippicalledNew Africa in 1888, the year that slavery was abolishedin Brazil. Today in Bahia, the mostAfrican of Brazilian states, blacks make up 80 percent of the population. Though slavery is long gone, hard laborpersistsfor sugarcaneworkers like FranciscoBrito Olindo (below), burning underbrush before cutting stalks of cane. He earns only about five dollars a day, with a bonus for higherproduction. Much of this dangerouswork is still done by hand with machetes and conditions can be spartan.Antonio Valdemir de Oliveira, shrouded by mosquito netting (right), sleeps on a concrete bunk.