Abstract:
This article addresses the territorial expansion of capital and its relationship to slave-like labor in the western region of Bahia. The western region concentrates the highest incidence of cases in the state, both in the number of rescued workers and offending employers. While western Bahia is a hub for slave labor, it is also a hub for agribusiness expansion. The expansion of the agricultural frontier has occurred mainly in crops linked to agribusiness – soybeans, cotton, and corn – activities that account for the highest number of rescued slave workers. To verify the territorial expansion of capital, the modification in the productive structure and land ownership structure in recent decades was analyzed. The data highlight the direct relationship between land concentration, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, the development of agribusiness, and labor in its most degrading form: slave-like labor.
