Final answer:
Brazil has the highest percentage of people of African descent in the Americas, primarily due to the large number of African slaves brought to work on plantations during the colonial era. Salvador, Brazil, is particularly noted for its African descended population, and the impact of this heritage is visible in various cultural practices.
Step-by-step explanation:
The country in the Americas with the highest percentage of people of African descent is Brazil. This is reflective of the historical fact that a significant portion of African slaves were taken to Latin America, particularly during the Atlantic slave trade. People of mixed African descent now make up more than one-third of Brazil's population, with a strong African-Brazilian heritage evident in cultural expressions such as the samba schools of the Brazilian carnival. Salvador, Brazil, is well-known for its high population of African descent, located in the coastal region where sugar plantations once thrived.
Despite the cultural diversity in Brazil, economic and political opportunities for Africans have historically been limited. The legacy of the Atlantic slave trade has had a profound impact, with Brazil receiving more than three million African slaves, the most of any single country. The forced labor of these enslaved individuals was critical to the success of early plantation agriculture in Brazil.
In contrast, other countries in the Americas such as Haiti have different socio-economic dynamics, with the minority mulatto segment often holding a significant degree of political and economic power over the majority population.