Many Portuguese males were leaving the country for the colonies, for Brasil especially, and the population of the nation dwindled to 1.5 million. A labour force was needed to work the farms, and since black Africans had begun to be imported in 1441 as domestic servants, this influx continued in numbers such that by 1550, the towns of Evora and Lisbon had a 10-percent black population. This lot of African slaves was not a happy one, and the black females were not afforded the same protection as the white slaves obtained through earlier conquests were.
Consequently, young mestiço girls of mixed descent became prized as mistresses, though not necessarily as wives.
The mortality rate amongst the slaves was high, as they were not afforded proper medical attention. A large number, since they were already familiar with Portuguese culture and the language, were subsequently deported to Brasil, where their presence was needed far more than in Portugal itself. Manumission was possible, and many chose to flee the country upon being freed.
However, a portion did remain in Portugal, and miscegenation meant that within a dozen or so generations, a considerable number of the 35,000 black Africans who had once lived in Portugal were blended into the mainstream of the Portuguese population. This sort of thing was not peculiar to Portugal alone; in fact, it occurred in nearly all of the slave-owning European nations, including Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Britain. The percentage of blacks was highest for Portugal, but the actual numerical figure was higher for Britain.
However, in no nation in Europe (including Portugal) was the absorption of blacks significant enough to change the ethnography of the country.
-João Ferreira,
The History of Portugal
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