# Ceramics and Africans in Brazil  
Brazil has much to contribute to the archaeological analysis of the African diaspora in the Americas, given that it was the main destination for enslaved Africans from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, receiving around 45 per cent of a population estimated at over 10 million individuals (Eltis, 2000). Enslaved Africans arrived in a constant stream up until 1850, with different regions receiving captives from specific regions of Africa. In this sense, the vast majority of enslaved people destined for the coffee plantations in the south-east of the country were from the Congo and Angola, while those working on the sugar plantations in Bahia and other north-eastern provinces were mainly from West Africa. The western areas received Africans from both regions.  
![img-32.jpeg](img_ref_33)
figure 1. Map of Brazil indicating the states mentioned in the text.  
Archaeological research conducted in spaces that are home to senzalas and quilombos in various Brazilian states has generated new knowledge on the material life of the African populations in the diaspora. ${ }^{1}$ Locally produced ceramics existed in a variety of proportions and styles in many of these contexts, while remaining notably scarce or even absent in others. Such diversity is due to variables such as the differing degrees of agency within senzala communities and their possibilities for choice and domestic production. Among the factors are the masters' control over the captives' material life and diet, their access to different goods of local or regional production and the distance from centres receiving imported commodities.  
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