small-scale slavery and a middle class of petty slave owners contributed to stabilize slavery as an
institution.
Plantations, especially in the initial phase, were located along the bay or its contributing rivers, and
therefore transportation to and from the export harbour Salvador was almost exclusively done by water.
Since the semi-arid interior of the colony, known as the sertão, could only be used for extensive cattle
farming, mill owners preferred to buy beasts of burdens and salted meat there and to concentrate on sugar
planting rather than to diversify their activities. Complementary activities developed, however, in the areas
not suitable for sugar, mainly in the western and southern part of the Recôncavo. Manioc flour, the main
staple food for slaves and the poor free population, as well as other subsistence crops, such as beans or
maize, was grown in the districts of Nazaré das Farinhas and Maragojipe. Most of the subsistence farmers
were of modest means, although many employed a few slaves. The development of a strong subsistence
sector not too distant from the engenhos allowed sugar planters to neglect subsistence agriculture
themselves.^2
Another important feature of the Recôncavo economy was the development of tobacco farming from the
seventeenth century onwards. Tobacco was planted all along the southern shore of the Recôncavo, but
cultivation concentrated especially in the area of Cachoeira and São Felix. Whilst tobacco cultivation was
also based on slave labour, it also tended to be produced in smaller units than the average sugar engenho.
Contrary to sugar, most of the tobacco was shipped directly to West African ports, and the profits reinvested
in the acquisition of slaves. This bilateral trade stood apart within the wider transatlantic economy, usually
characterized by European merchants operating a triangular trade, first taking weapons and other
commodities to the African ports, then embarking slaves there for sale in the Americas, and finally shipping
colonial products back to Europe. The bilateral trade between Salvador to the Bight of Benin had important
consequences not only for the economy, but also for the culture on both sides of the Atlantic. With ships
leaving Salvador directly for the African coast the return to their homeland became a concrete possibility
for freed West Africans. Thousands left (and some were deported) in the second part of the nineteenth century,
constituting communities of ‘Brazilians’ in cities like Porto Novo or Lagos. Ongoing links between ports on
both sides of the Atlantic also implied that the rupture with their African origins was not complete, as was
the case in most other plantation colonies. West Africans and their descendants in Bahia could therefore
maintain an—albeit limited—communication with their homelands. Some actually carved out a living by
trading with West African products in Bahia such as textiles and cowries.^3
In summary, the economy of the Recôncavo was much more diversified than the image traditional
accounts tend to paint. Sugar was king, but many other market orientated activities provided a living for a
heterogeneous rural middle class. If society was divided between few sugar mill owners at the top and the mass
of field slaves at the bottom, a complex hierarchy, consisting of skilled slaves, subsistence farmers and
small-scale slave owners, however, filled the space in between. The different sectors of the agriculture
based around the Bay of All the Saints relied on an intense network of trade linking the many ports of the
Recôncavo with each other. Fishermen, small traders and street vendors, ship owners and the crew of
saveiros and other vessels represented further significant groups of the Bahian society.
Salvador, also called the City of Bahia, constituted the neuralgic centre of this relatively populated and
economically integrated region. Located on the northern edge of the Bay of All the Saints, the city
developed around the port. All sugar and other export products converged here before being shipped
abroad. The port was also an important relay for the trade along the Brazilian coast of, for instance,
foodstuff such as manioc flour or fish. No wonder that the commercial area of the city developed centrally,
near the port area. Yet Salvador was more than just a major port. From 1549 to 1763 it harboured the capital
of colonial Brazil, concentrating the administrative and ecclesiastic bureaucracy and some important
94 THE CAPOEIRA SCENE IN BAHIA