The first period starts at the time during which the presence of Brazilian slavers on that coast became stronger, from the early nineteenth century. By that time, the slave trade had already been prohibited north of the equator and the Bahian slavers were doing everything they could to continue conducting their trade for a few more years. These Brazilian traders and traffickers established in the region had their own way of life and married native women. They maintained commercial and political relations with the native population, into which they were assimilated, to a certain extent, through marriage. They were not very numerous, despite their economic and political importance. They made their fortunes and lived according to their own culture. Along with their mestizo children, they were referred to by everyone - themselves included - as Agudás.  
The second period began with the mass arrival of Africans who had been enslaved in Brazil, from the mid-nineteenth century. These people were black, but had 'white ways'. They discriminated against the natives, whom they considered to be 'savages' and, in turn, were rejected by them, as they continued to be seen as 'slaves', i.e. excluded.  
The issue of slavery, which is practically absent from school books and very often minimized in scholarly works on the ancient kingdom of Dahomey, is nevertheless still present in social and personal relations. Indeed, as Meillassoux (1986, p. 107) indicates, 'capture (or purchase that presupposed capture) marked the slaves with an indelible stigma'. The slave trade was the driving force of the economy for centuries, and slavery has always been viewed as an institution by all people involved in it. It is therefore not surprising that social discrimination deriving from the condition of enslavement remains very present in the Agudás' relationships, whether among themselves or with other social groups.