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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Struggling against Enslavement: The Case of Jose Manuel in Benguela, 1816-20 |
| Author: | Curto, José C. |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Periodical: | Canadian Journal of African Studies |
| Volume: | 39 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 96-122 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Angola Portugal |
| Subjects: | colonialism colonial administration slavery History and Exploration Labor and Employment |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/25067452 |
| Abstract: | Enslavement, slaving and frameworks for protection against slavery were not merely legal issues, but matters complicated, from the beginning of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, by overlapping local contexts. To illustrate this, the author reconstructs the case of José Manuel, an inhabitant of the Luso-Brazilian colonial port town of Benguela in colonial Angola during the second half of the 1810s. The case is valuable on a number of levels. First, it represents a well-documented challenge against enslavement that has survived in the archives of Angola. Second, it is notable because, once José Manuel was threatened with enslavement, his kin came to the rescue. Third, this led to a long administrative dispute within the Portuguese colonial State between the then Governor of Benguela and his titular superior, the Governor of Angola in Luanda. The experience of José Manuel represents one of those unusual instances where an individual in Africa could effectively adopt a legal strategy to fight enslavement. The legality of the case, however, was in and by itself not enough to produce a positive outcome. This materialized only following the full support of kin and the intervention of a high ranking Portuguese colonial administrator. Bibliogr, notes, ref., sum. in French. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
