Slavery in Angola

Slavery in Angola existed since the late 15th century when Portugal established contacts with the peoples living in what is the Northwest of the present country, and founded several trade posts on the coast. A number of those peoples, like the Imbangala[1] and the Mbundu,[2] were active slave traders for centuries (see Slavery in Africa). In the late 16th century, Kingdom of Portugal's explorers founded the fortified settlement of Luanda, and later on minor trade posts and forts on the Cuanza River as well as on the Atlantic coast southwards until Benguela. The main component of their trading activities consisted in a heavy involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.[3] Slave trafficking was abolished in 1836 by the Portuguese authorities.[4]

  1. ^ "African involvement in Atlantic Slave Trade". Kwaku Person-Lynn. Archived from the original on 2004-09-16. Retrieved 2004-10-01.
  2. ^ Mbundu, Onwuka N. Njoku, PH D Njoku, The Rosen Publishing Group, 1997 ISBN 0-8239-2004-6 ISBN 978-0-8239-2004-4
  3. ^ Joseph C. Miller, Way of Death: Merchant capitalism and the Angolan slave trade, Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1996
  4. ^ ANGOLA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY - Slave Trading in the 1700s, "From the late sixteenth century until 1836, when Portugal abolished slave trafficking, Angola may have been the source of as many as 2 million slaves for the New World. More than half of these went to Brazil, nearly a third to the Caribbean, and from 10 to 15 percent to the Río de la Plata area on the southeastern coast of South America." countrystudies.com (Source: U.S. Library of Congress)