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African Slavery and the Reckoning of Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Lambais, Guilherme
  • Palma, Nuno

Abstract

More enslaved Africans disembarked in Brazil than in any other country in the New World. Using new archival data, we build real wage and slave price series for Brazil covering 1574-1920. Wages initially matched those in Europe but fell as the slave trade expanded, only recovering when the trade ended and slave prices rose. We develop a directed technical change model with slave tasks to explain this finding. We also estimate a large, positive causal effect of slave trade prohibition on wages, consistent with our model. Post-prohibition, there was technological change towards free labor and concentration of slave labor in high-disamenity occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Lambais, Guilherme & Palma, Nuno, 2023. "African Slavery and the Reckoning of Brazil," CEPR Discussion Papers 18716, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:18716
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Carvalhal, Hélder & Palma, Nuno, 2026. "Living standards in Angola, 1760–197511This work is an output from the project “Measuring the Great Divergence: A study of global standards of living, 1500–1950″, supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/W001578/1). We t," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Nuno Palma, 2025. "Portugal’S Empire In Africa And Asia, 1415-1975," Lewis Lab Working Papers Series 0012, Arthur Lewis Lab, The University of Manchester.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • N36 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • N96 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J47 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Coercive Labor Markets

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