Non-European Agents in the Benguela Mercantile Community, c. 1760-1820

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Mariana Candido, Emory University
• Language: Portuguese
• Date: 2013-12-31
• Publisher: Saeculum
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: 2013 Saeculum
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): https://periodicos.ufpb.br/ojs/index.php/srh/article/view/19811
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Dossier History and Economic History
• Volume: 29
• Start Page: 97
• End Page: 124
• Keywords: slave trade; Africa; commercial scenario; commercial networks; Benguela; South Atlantic; merchant communications
• Research Categories: History, Latin American; Economics, Commerce - Business; History, African

Abstract

Benguela was the third largest slave trade port on the African coast. From there, over 750,000 Africans were exported to the Americas. The volume and importance of this trade attracted traders from the interior of Benguela, as well as from other Atlantic ports such as Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Lisbon, Luanda, Cacheu and Ouidah. This paper explores the presence of traders of different origins in Benguela, with a particular focus on those from other African ports. Through the analysis of nominal lists, official petitions and court cases, as well as baptism, marriage and death records, the strategies used by such individuals in Benguela to secure their participation in this trade are analyzed. Many of them married wealthy native women, daughters of the police and commercial elites. Through these marriages, the association of foreign and local traders is analyzed, among other intricate relationships of the Atlantic commercial community of Benguela. In this sense, this approach contributes to the understanding of the formation of the complex commercial scenario of the South Atlantic, emphasizing its bilateral connections, as significant as those of the triangular trade characteristic of the North Atlantic. Also highlighted in this analysis is the role of these African traders in the formation of commercial networks, as well as in the transportation of goods and slaves imported from the interior markets to the coastal ports of West Africa.