The increasing number of Africans in Brazil led to this population supplementing and eventually replacing the Native American labor force. These three categories—European, African, and Native American—were placed within a racial hierarchy established around a Eurocentric agenda; the particular system implemented in Brazil was known as the ternary racial project, which was popularized by anthropologist Gilberto Freyre. This system was established in order to validate the nation's extensive miscegenation practices, creating three categories of classification: white, multiracial, and black. Brazil never passed anti-miscegenation laws, and instead, viewed miscegenation as a means to slowly whiten the Brazilian population. But focusing on this lack of legalized racial discrimination resulted in the misconception that Brazilian society was also free of racism, a concept known as "racial democracy" wherein Brazil was free of discrimination such as segregation and racial violence. The theory of "racial democracy" was further developed in the 1930s as a means to reconcile nationalist anti-immigration sentiment, the perceived failure of the state initiative to whiten Brazil, and the growing multiracial population. Freyre interpreted Brazil's mixed-race population as being the defining characteristic of Brazil: a country where one could live in a harmonious, multiracial society.