ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the question of Afro-Brazilians and social mobility in the cacao area. It addresses three issues: access to land by Afro-Brazilians; the extent to which they were able to hold on to that land; and the role that their African heritage played in their success or failure. The chapter suggests that some Afro-Brazilians were able to acquire land and begin to exploit it but that commercial and political structures made it difficult for them to maintain control of their properties. The southern Bahian case suggests that neither the legacy of slavery nor racism precluded Afro-Brazilians from attempting to take advantage of opportunities offered to them. The legacy of slavery as seen in Brazil's hierarchical social system and the illiteracy of the largest part of the population did make it difficult for most of those Afro-Brazilians to turn opportunity into long-term and durable upward social mobility.
