Pinheiros: Sao Paulo

The old center, the suburbs, and a huge number of districts that make up this megalopolis all help to reveal the history of the city and its population. Initially inhabited by Native Americans and later by Portuguese colonists, the city received a considerable population of African slaves in the 17th Century, as did almost all the south, central and north-eastern regions of the country. Slaves provided the main source of manual labor for the coffee and sugar cane plantations. However, São Paulo's population, grew very slowly until the middle of the 19th Century. At this time, the area we now know as Greater São Paulo was still made up of small scattered settlements, concentrated mainly in the present-day locations of the Pinheiros, Freguesia do Ó and Lapa districts. © WCities