The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History, Revised Edition

2. The Portuguese Pioneers

BOB — University of Nebraska Press / Page 18 / / The Transatlantic Slave Trade / James A. Rawley 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [First Page] [18], (1) Lines: 0 to 19 ——— 5.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [18], (1) 2. the portuguese pioneers It was the Portuguese who first opened the Atlantic Ocean, started the Atlantic slave trade, and established the first European overseas empire. On the western rim of Christendom, occupying but a part of the Iberian Peninsula, with scanty natural and commercial wealth, at first sight they may seem an unpromising people to make such important beginnings. The Mediterranean had long been the center of maritime enterprise and trade, including the traffic in slaves. Why were the Portuguese the pioneers? Of considerable importance is the circumstance that Portugal was the first modern nation-state. Unified and enjoying domestic tranquility, it contrasted with the city-states of Italy and the strife-torn kingdoms of Castile, France, and England. A strong monarchy, to which the upper class was reconciled, and a Cortes, in which the middle class was represented, provided the political structure essential to the future’s accomplishments. Its geographical location, at the southwestern tip of Europe,near both the Mediterranean center and theAfrican continent, gave it advantage. Italian, particularly Genoese, knowledge and capital lent encouragement to Portuguese enterprise in the fifteenth century. At the beginning of the century, in 1415, the Portuguese secured a stronghold in Africa at Ceuta, a seaport commanding interior trade, leading to gold and “Negroland .” The merchant class was not large, but it enjoyed vitality as well as influence in the two largest maritime cities, Lisbon with the population of about 40,000, and Oporto with a population of about 8,000. The merchants drove a bustling trade with Flanders and England, and they owned most of the ships employed in it. Portuguese caravels, small, light, and fast, unlike Mediterranean galleys and “round boats,” were ideal vessels for African pathfinding. The Abbé Raynal, author of a widely read philosophical history of the East and West Indies, perceived that the Portuguese, already characterized by religious fanaticism and“enthusiastic fondness for one’s country,”added a new passion as they turned to the conquest of Africa and Asia—“the thirst for riches.” BOB — University of Nebraska Press / Page 19 / / The Transatlantic Slave Trade / James A. Rawley 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [19], (2) Lines: 19 to 27 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [19], (2) In Prince Henry the ruling house of Avis boasted a member who personified much of the spirit at work in the first half of the century. From 1415 to his death in 1460 he was the major figure in the inauguration of the Atlantic slave trade. In undertaking the great voyages of discovery, Henry and his countrymen appear to have been animated by a zeal against Muslims, a greed for gold, the quest for the legendary kingdom of Prester John, and the search for Oriental spices. The slave trade, though centuries old in the Mediterranean world, at first was not an object of Henry’s interest. But in 1444 the caravels of Lançarote and Gil Eannes brought 235 slaves of varying hues to Lagos, presenting the royal fifth of the prince, who said he was well pleased. The era of the Atlantic slave trade had begun.1 These slaves had been taken in raids. Shouting“Saint James,”“Saint George,” and“Portugal,”exploring party members had attacked and taken all they could.2 In short order Portuguese practice in procuring slaves changed. Warfare was the hard way,barter the easier. The shift from raid to trade was signalized about 1448 by building a feitoria (or factory) onArguim Island,from where a contemporary claimed the Portuguese every year carried away a thousand slaves.3 To Arguim, the first European trading settlement in West Africa, Arabs brought slaves and gold, taking woolen and linen cloth, silver, tapestry, and grain. The slave-trading area rapidly widened. By the time of Prince Henry’s death, his captains had explored the mouths of the Senegal...