What question did this study set out to answer?

To explore the emigration patterns of Azoreans and Madeirans to Brazil and the British West Indies driven by labor demands in the mid-19th century.

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February 12, 2026Open Access

At the Crossroads of Empires: Azoreans and Madeirans in Brazil and the West Indies in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Key Points

To explore the emigration patterns of Azoreans and Madeirans to Brazil and the British West Indies driven by labor demands in the mid-19th century.
Analysis of Brazilian and Portuguese archival documents
Review of secondary sources about Portuguese emigration
Examination of labor conditions in Brazil and the British West Indies
Identified shared causes for migration linked to labor demand post-slave trade
Highlighted poor living and working conditions faced by migrants
Showed efforts by Portuguese authorities to differentiate their laborers from other groups in the colonies

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.

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