All of the 'Brazilians' I interviewed while carrying out my research affirmed that they had been referred to as 'slaves' in various day-to-day situations. This is more or less the rule, in school and at the market. In contrast, within the private sphere, as historian François de Medeiros explained, during an interview in June 1996 in Paris, 'Il y a un accord tacite pour ne jamais parler d'ascendance esclave' [There is a tacit agreement never to speak of slave descent].  
These individuals had different ethnic backgrounds and were united by only a handful of similarities. They shared a common memory of a social experience, expressed through living practices, a way of being and, most importantly, they all had a professional qualification in accordance with the new European cultural and economic parameters gaining increasing momentum in the country. They used white surnames, which they inherited from their masters, and the model of white culture they acquired in Brazil. This culture was the trump card that allowed them to join the slavers from Bahia in the region's dominant economic activities, which were based on the slave trade. As the slave trade came to an end, the activities evolved into more varied forms of local and international trade, including the exploitation of local resources such as palm oil.