Bahian Recôncavo Plantations: Spaces of Power and Resistance.

Brazil was the recipient of the highest number of enslaved Africans and maintained the longest-lasting system of slavery in the Americas. Over three centuries, approximately four million Africans were brought to Brazil via the Middle Passage. Slavery had a significant impact on most aspects of Brazilian society, but the plantations were particularly emblematic of the spatial systems of exploitation associated with slavery. However, despite being designed to exert control over enslaved Africans, those plantations also served as sites of resistance, where enslaved people found ways to confront the system. Using more than seventy photographs, paintings, and maps, this book focuses on three plantations in the Bahian Recôncavo region and examines how their architecture and geography were used for both control and resistance. It also shows how the legacy of slavery is still evident throughout Brazil today. The existence of more than 100 million Afro-descendant Brazilians living in informal settlements is a reflection of the ongoing social and racial barriers that have persisted since the time of slavery