At the Crossroads of Empires: Azoreans and Madeirans in Brazil and the West Indies in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Abstract
Abstract This article examines the emigration of impoverished Azoreans and Madeirans to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and the British West Indies (BWI), especially British Guiana, in the nineteenth century, driven by the demand for labour following the prohibition of the slave trade in Brazil and emancipation in the BWI. It explores the shared causes of these migratory flows, migrants’ living and working conditions, and the efforts of Portuguese authorities to distinguish their labourers from other colonized peoples. Drawing on Brazilian and Portuguese archives, as well as secondary sources on the Portuguese in the British West Indies, this transnational study situates Portuguese islanders within the broader labour experiments of the nineteenth century.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Migration and Labor Dynamics
Diaspora
migration
transnational identity
Colonialism
slavery
and trade
Publication details
- Journal / source
- International Review of Social History
- Volume
- 71
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1–27
- Publication date
- 11 February 2026
- Language
- EN