Porto de Galinhas

The Origin of the Name

In the second half of the 17th century, Brazil’s sugar production began to decline.

At that time, the Dutch — expelled from Pernambuco — moved to the Dutch Antilles, taking with them the know-how of sugar cultivation. There, they developed a more sophisticated production system, and Portugal was unable to compete either in price or in quality with Antillean sugar. This marked the beginning of the crisis in sugar production in the Northeast of Brazil.

The region gradually lost its colonial economic importance, as the focus shifted to the Southeast with the discovery of gold in Minas Gerais — but that’s a topic for another conversation.

In any case, although sugar production decreased, it never ceased completely. When the first law banning the transatlantic slave trade was signed in 1830, slave traffickers and sugar mill owners found ways to continue transporting and selling enslaved people brought from Africa.

The announcement of the arrival of new slaves on the coast of Pernambuco was entirely coded. Africans were hidden beneath shipments of guinea fowl on boats that docked at a clandestine pier, south of Recife. The disembarkation of the birds was loudly proclaimed: “there are new chickens at the port” — a message that was quickly understood to mean that a new shipment of slaves had arrived. Under the cover of night, they were unloaded and sold right there at the port.

And can you guess the name of that port?
Porto de Galinhas — literally, “Port of Chickens.”

Porto de Galinhas beach, Pernambuco, Brazil