Sails and Shadows: How the Portuguese Opened the Atlantic and Launched the Slave TradeHow the early Portuguese Empire facilitated the modern slave trade. The Portuguese conquered the challenges of sailing the unforgiving Atlantic Ocean, extending their colonial empire along Africa's western shores. With their dedication to developing new sailing techniques and groundbreaking new knowledge of weather patterns and ocean currents, Portuguese mariners set the tone for the Age of Exploration. But their navigational achievements had horrific consequences for the people of western Africa: subjection to the slave trade. Patricia Seed examines the historical and climatic odds that Portuguese seafarers overcame to be the first Europeans to tame the Atlantic. Using insights from fields ranging from oceanography to ethnography, she recounts how the Portuguese rapidly innovated and achieved profound new understandings of the ocean and sailing. At the same time, she foregrounds the reality that these innovations enabled them to inflict unimaginable cruelty as, against sometimes violent resistance, they forged what became their spoils of empire: the lucrative trade in human cargo that enslaved millions across Africa and beyond. Sails and Shadows is a history of incredible ingenuity outweighed and overshadowed by the horrors it wrought. |
Contents
List of Illustrations | 1 |
Illustrations MAPS | 2 |
Cape Bojador and the Canary Islands | 11 |
Gulf Stream Azores Return Current and Portugal Current | 21 |
Bay of Arguin | 28 |
West African coast from SineSaloum to Casamance River | 44 |
Bijagos Islands Bolama Island and Rio Grande de Buba | 55 |
Pedro de Sintras voyage | 58 |
Coastal areas on Diogo Cãos journey | 95 |
Coastal areas on Bartolomeu Diass journey | 109 |
Equatorial currents crossed by Vasco da Gama | 120 |
Transatlantic currents encountered by da Gama | 124 |
South African coast | 131 |
Sandbanks in Mozambique Harbor that detained Nicolau Coelho | 141 |
Notes | 159 |
Bibliography | 219 |
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Common terms and phrases
Africa Pilot African coast Agulhas Current anchor Arabic Arguin Barros Bay of Arguin began boats Bojador Cabo Cadamosto Canary Current canoes Cão captain captured century chap coastal communities Congo River Costa crew Décadas degrees south descobrimentos desert Dias Diogo Diogo Cão Dum diversas east encountered enslaved equator Equatorial Current Esmeraldo Évora Europeans Évora exchange expedition farther Fernandes fleet fresh water Gama’s Geophysical Research gold Gonçalves Guiné Guinea Gulf harbor Henry’s hundred miles Indian Ocean islands João journey kilometers King Afonso land language Lisbon miles south Monsoon Muslims natives nautical miles navigational North Equatorial Current pillar Portugal Portuguese Portuguese ships Prince Henry reached remained route sailing sand shore Sintra slave trade Somali Current South Atlantic southern southward star sun’s tion Tristão U.S. Hydrographic Office Vasco da Gama Velho vessels voyages White Cape Zurara