Poor Man's Crop? Slavery in Brazilian Cotton Regions (1800-1850)

Abstract

Abstract Much of the literature about cotton production in Brazil during the nineteenth century considers cotton as a "poor man's crop" - cultivated by small farmers who did not employ a large slave labor force. However, information provided in population maps from the period between 1800 and 1840 shows that slaves represented half the population in Maranhão, the most important cotton exporter in Brazil until the 1840s. This represented a higher share than in any region in northeast Brazil and was comparable t…