Half of Brazil's presidents since the end of the dictatorship.
Almost half of the current governors of Brazilian states.
And one-fifth of the country's sitting senators.
What do all these politicians have in common? They all have direct ancestors who allegedly owned enslaved people, used enslaved labor, or even worked to contain revolts by Black and poor people during colonial Brazil and the empire.
This is the conclusion of the Enslavers Project, an unprecedented survey in Brazil, and the result of more than a year of work by Agência Pública, Brazil’s largest nonprofit newsroom. It investigated the history of Brazilian authorities in the executive and legislative branches: all presidents since the dictatorship, all senators, and governors in office. The objective was to trace the family tree of each of them to see if any direct ancestors had a proven relationship with slavery.
The research used open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques to search for the names of these ancestors. The sources were diverse: parish records of baptism and marriage, birth and death certificates, old newspapers in newspaper libraries and public archives, articles, theses, and academic dissertations. Records on family genealogy websites, posts on social networks, and statements by the politicians were also used.
What Agência Pública found is both expected and surprising. Several of the politicians who lead the Brazilian state today are descendants of families who have remained in power for centuries, and who benefited, at some point, from the economic, political, and social system of slavery.
The research covered the 18th and 19th centuries.
This project shows how the connection of the slave trade, Brazilian elites, and political power maintains the economic, political, and legal system of slavery in Brazil.
