Underneath the sign of illegality: The slave trade in the building of coffee complex in Rio de Janeiro (1831-1850)

Abstract

In this paper, we will analyze how the coffee business were related to the illegal slave trade during the construction of coffee plantation in Brazil in the 19th century. In addition, we will highlight how structures of the coffee economy, through the cabotage business, allowed the development of illegal slave trade from the mid-1830s until the begging of 1850s, which expanded and consolidated the economy, and strengthened slavery within the framework of the development of the capitalist economy in plantation areas. Finally, we will emphasize the new spaces of illegal slave trade, their agents and their structures. This perspective aims to resize the process of growth of slavery in the 19th century in its Atlantic dimension.