The smuggling-slave trade in the Colonia do Sacramento (1722-1777)

Abstract:

We address the structural role of the illegal slave trade in the history of the Colonia de Sacramento, the Portuguese colony established on the eastern bank of the River Plate during the 18th century. Initially we make an assessment of the size of the slave population in the platine settlement, showing that the numbers were much higher than the actual needs of labor in the locality. This leads to the emphasis given to the trans-imperial networks of slave smuggling, driven from the Lusitanian possession. Next, we test the informational potential of the parish sources for the analysis of the dynamics of the slave trade, evidencing that the records of baptisms and deaths of adult Africans are a reliable indicator of the connections between the río de la Plata and Portuguese America through the slave ports of the cities of Salvador and Rio de Janeiro.

Keywords:
Colonia del Sacramento; smuggling; parish registers