After reading this article on Brazil's slave plantations and slave trading history, John NOT of God fits right in! My theory is that historic slave trade routes and slave trader family bloodlines went underground after being outlawed. Studying their history is illuminating for our current child trafficking crisis. The following article is a very good overview of Brazils slave history: READ IT ALL

Brazilian Slavery

"Brazil had the largest slave population in the world, substantially larger than the United States. The Portuguese who settled Brazil needed labor to work the large estates and mines in their new Brazilian colony. They turned to slavery which became central to the colonial economy. It was particularly important in the mining and sugar cane sectors. Slavery was also the mainstay in the Caribbean islands with economies centered on sugar. Estimates suggest that about 35 percent of captured Africans involved in the Atlantic slave trade were transported to Brazil. Estimates suggest that more than 3 million Africans reached Brazil, although precise numbers do not exist. Brazil had begun to turn to slavery in the 15th century as explorers began moving along the coast of Africa. With the discovery of the Americas, the Portuguese attempted to enslave the Native American population as well. This did not prove successful. The Native Americans died in large numbers, both because of slave rading, mistreatment, and the lack of resistance to European diseases. The Portuguese found captured Africans to be a valuable trading commodity as Europeans began to settle the Caribbean islands. They also began transporting Africans to their Brazilian colony."

Founding of Brazil

"The Portuguese when they founded their Brazilisn colony, like the Spanish, attempted to enslave Native Americans. Unlike the Craribbean islands, the Native Americans in Brazil could flee to the interior where the Portuguese could not reach them, although slaving raids were conducted up the Amazon. Native Americans who did not flee were decimated by the European diseases the Portuguese carried. Brazil had begun to turn to slavery in the 15th century as explorers began moving along the coast of Africa. With the discovery of the Americas, the Portuguese attempted to enslave the Native American population as well. This did not prove successful. The Native Americans died in large numbers, both because of slave rading, mistreatment, and the lack of resistance to European diseases. The Portuguese found captured Africans to be a valuable trading commodity as Brazilian planters needed workers ad Europeans began to settle the Caribbean islands. They also began transporting Africans to their Brazilian colony. "

The Portuguese and the African Slave Trade

"The Portuguese begun to turn to African slavery in the 15th century as explorers began moving south along the coast of Africa, looking for a route ast to th Indies and China. In the process they essentilly invented the Atlantic slave trade as part of the voyages of discovery. It was not the beginning of the Africa slave trade. This was ib=nventedvby the Arabs in the Indian Ocean (8th century). Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal sent a trading expedition to Africa, to explore the little known continent (1441). The Portuguese found captured Africans to be a valuable trading commodity as Europeans began to settle the Caribbean islands. They also began transporting Africans to their Brazilian colony. They were less suseptable for genetic reasons to both tropical and European diseases. Africans from various regions were transported to Brazil from various regions in increasingly large numbers as the colony developed. Large numbers came from the developing Portuguese colonies in Africa, but were not limited to those regions. Ther were slaves from both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean coast. Atkantic-coast slaves came from Cape Vert (a transhipment point) and southern Africa such as Angola. Slaves also campe from the Indian Ocean coast, especially Mozambique. Of course many slaves came from the interior and and were only shipped from the two coasts. A cargo of 235 captive Africans was brought to Lagos in Portugal. The Portuguese began using enslaved Africans on sugar plantations in Madeira, a Portuguese island off the west coast of Africa (1460). It was the Portuguese who built the first slave fort, meaning a fotified positions where cptive Africans could be held for transport-- Elmina Castle (1481). It was located along the coast of what is now Ghana. That area became known as not only the Gold Coast, but also the slave coast. Elmina Castle became the headquarters of the Portuguese slave traders. As large numbers of captive Africans began to be transported, Portugal was the major purveor. Portugal held the asiento (contract) to supply the Spanish colonies with slaves. This meant that as well as supplying Brazilian plantations, the Portuguese were supplying Spanish plantations in the Caribbean. This was before the Sugar Boom and massive numbers of slaves were transported. Other countries began entering the lucrative eterprise. Evebtually the Portuguese would transport some 4.7 million captive Africans for slavery in the New World. "

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