1582–1851: Rio de Janeiro eventually surpassed all other New World ports to become the single largest entry point for enslaved Africans in history.

1582–1851: Rio de Janeiro eventually surpassed all other New World ports to become the single largest entry point for enslaved Africans in history. Over 1.5 million people were forcibly landed in the city, with the trade reaching its absolute peak during the first half of the nineteenth century. West Central Africa provided over 80 percent of these individuals, though significant numbers also arrived from Southeast Africa and the Bight of Benin. The city’s rapid growth was fueled by the expansion of coffee production and mining in the Brazilian interior, which created an insatiable demand for labor. Even after the official ban of the trade in 1831, Rio remained the center of a massive and highly organized illegal traffic.