Biography, mobility and atlantic culture: a micro-scale interpretation of the slave trade in Benguela (18th and 19th centuries)

Abstract

Trading networks in Benguela were based not only on business ties, but also on family, cultural and religious links. By using prosopographical techniques and reconstructing merchants' trajectories, this article takes a micro-scale approach to commerce in Benguela. It maps out the onset of shipments of slaves from Benguela, and focuses on mobility patterns of merchants across the southern Atlantic and the relations between Benguela and Rio de Janeiro.

Benguela; Atlantic slave trade; biographies