Lourenço da Silva Mendonça and the Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Seventeenth CenturyThis groundbreaking study tells the story of the highly organised, international legal court case for the abolition of slavery spearheaded by Prince Lourenço da Silva Mendonça in the seventeenth century. The case, presented before the Vatican, called for the freedom of all enslaved people and other oppressed groups. This included New Christians (Jews converted to Christianity) and Indigenous Americans in the Atlantic World, and Black Christians from confraternities in Angola, Brazil, Portugal and Spain. Abolition debate is generally believed to have been dominated by white Europeans in the eighteenth century. By centring African agency, José Lingna Nafafé offers a new perspective on the abolition movement, showing, for the first time, how the legal debate was begun not by Europeans, but by Africans. In the first book of its kind, Lingna Nafafé underscores the exceptionally complex nature of the African liberation struggle, and demystifies the common knowledge and accepted wisdom surrounding African slavery. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Municipal Council of Luanda and the Politics | 57 |
Vassal of Kongo | 100 |
Alliance Internal | 138 |
The Princes of PungoAndongo | 193 |
to Portugal | 207 |
Vieira | 260 |
Mendonças Journey to Portugal and Spain and the Network | 275 |
Liberation as a Wider | 323 |
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Common terms and phrases
abolition Afonso Álvares Americas Angola Antonio António Vieira argued Arquivo Atlantic slave trade baculamento Bahia Blacks Male Brásio Brazil Cadornega captives captured Carta Christians cód Colonial confraternities Congo Correia de Sousa Council of Luanda culture Diogo documents economic engenho enslaved Africans Escravos European female Slaves Fernão de Sousa freedom Gaspar Governador guerra Heintze Heywood História History human Indigenous Americans Jaca and Moirans Jesuit João Hari José Kazanze king of Kongo Kingdom of Kongo Kongolese letter Lisbon Lourenço da Silva Luanda Madrid Magestade Manuel Matamba Mbundu Mendonça Mendonça’s court Mesquita Moirans naõ Ndongo Ndongo royals Negro Njinga Palmarists Paulo Pedro Philipe Hari political Pope Portuguese Crown Portuguese Overseas Council priests Pungo-Andongo Quilombo dos Palmares Regimento region Reino Rio de Janeiro São Paulo Século sent seventeenth century Simão slavery sobas SOCG Sousa a El-Rei Thornton Trade and Conquest Vatican Vieira West Central Africa