Cape Verde played a major role in the slave trade because of its unique position which is midway between Europe, Africa and America and facing the Slave Coast. It is one of the crossroads in transatlantic navigation and the triangular trade that developed at the time of its discovery in the fifteenth century. It soon became an entrepôt that was used for some four centuries.
From the sixteenth century onwards, with the significant expansion in the black slave trade, Cape Verde became a transit point for slaves from several regions on the western coast of Africa due to its geostrategic location.
This movement of slaves left its mark in historical documents, a number of which are preserved in state archives. They include an assortment of manuscripts and printed documents made up of records, official correspondence between the colonial authorities and the central government, court proceedings, contractual documents concerning the sale and registration of slaves, letters of manumission, listings of freed black slaves from various islands, etc.
Although most documents concerning the first few centuries of the colonial period and hence the trafficking in black Africans and the slave trade were transferred to the Portuguese archives under legislation passed by the Ministry of Maritime and Overseas Affairs in the nineteenth century, some documents still need to be preserved and provided with better conditions for access and use.
The existing documentary sources, covering the period 1836 to 1890, are an integral part of the archival holdings of the “Secretaria General de Governo” – the provincial administrative body centralizing all the information, decisions and communications from official sources all over Cape Verde. These documents had to be brought to the Governor’s attention and recorded in the “Boletim Oficial da Província”.
The documents preserved in the National Historical Archives of Cape Verde contain important information on the history of the slave trade and are therefore of fundamental significance for the country’s historical archival heritage, its national memory and the memory of the world. As there is a support library for the National Archives, most of the works on slavery are found in our institution.
These archival documents include:
- slave registers;
- manumission registers and letters;
- miscellaneous correspondence from the Board for the Protection of Freed Slaves;
- documentation on the abolition of slavery;
- documentation from the Joint Portuguese-British Commission;
- court proceedings, decisions, etc.
This movement of slaves left its mark in historical documents, a number of which are preserved in state archives. They include an assortment of manuscripts and printed documents made up of records, official correspondence between the colonial authorities and the central government, court proceedings, contractual documents concerning the sale and registration of slaves, letters of manumission, listings of freed black slaves from various islands, etc.
Although most documents concerning the first few centuries of the colonial period and hence the trafficking in black Africans and the slave trade were transferred to the Portuguese archives under legislation passed by the Ministry of Maritime and Overseas Affairs in the nineteenth century, some documents still need to be preserved and provided with better conditions for access and use.
The existing documentary sources, covering the period 1836 to 1890, are an integral part of the archival holdings of the “Secretaria General de Governo” – the provincial administrative body centralizing all the information, decisions and communications from official sources all over Cape Verde. These documents had to be brought to the Governor’s attention and recorded in the “Boletim Oficial da Província”.
The documents preserved in the National Historical Archives of Cape Verde contain important information on the history of the slave trade and are therefore of fundamental significance for the country’s historical archival heritage, its national memory and the memory of the world. As there is a support library for the National Archives, most of the works on slavery are found in our institution.
These archival documents include:
- slave registers;
- manumission registers and letters;
- miscellaneous correspondence from the Board for the Protection of Freed Slaves;
- documentation on the abolition of slavery;
- documentation from the Joint Portuguese-British Commission;
- court proceedings, decisions, etc.
