The article analyses the correspondence between the Portuguese and Slave Coast African kings between 1810 and 1812. Those years cover the signing of two important treaties with Great Britain involving the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The paper brings to scene the Brazilian historian Angela Castro Gomes' analysis about personal correspondences as a literary genre to explore the letters of Adandozan, the king of Dahomey, and Dom João, at that time, regent of Portugal. This correspondence presents Dom João as a man attached to the early Portuguese diplomacy of his ancestors, bringing out his political commitment with slavery.
transatlantic slave trade; diplomacy; Brazil; Dahomey; letters