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136 Françoise Latour da Veiga Pinto,

A. Carreira

was strong enough to enfore such a measure. From that time on the Atlantic
trade dwindled.
But the slave trade left many after-effects; and it continued in various
forms throughout the Portuguese colonial period. There are several reasons for
this. One derived from the habits that had been formed, and the existence of
a home market organized by the Africans themselves. Another was the need to
solve the problem of 'pockets' of slaves still collected together for sale. A
third was the colonial administration's intention of improving the land, which
led it to 'engage' labourers on terms very similar to those of their forebears
who had been transported across the Atlantic. Slavery was abolished in 1858,
though with a twenty-year transitional period. But before that, on 23 October
1853, a decree had been promulgated authorizing the transport of slaves from
Angola to the island of Principe to develop coffee and cocoa growing there.
After being baptized, they were marked on the right arm with a mark signifying
that they 'were freed' (sic). According to the law, they had to serve for seven
years in the plantations ; in other words, they were free by right and slaves in
fact. In one form or another, the laws of 1875 and 1878 and the decrees of
1899, 1903 and 1909 countenanced disguised forced labour in the Portuguese
African colonies and the transfer of labour to Sao Tomé and Principe.
So shocking was this institutionalized state of affairs that Norton de
Matos described and denounced it in 1912. He was Governor of Angola at
the time, and tried to change conditions of work in Africa : but the Portuguese
colonial administration continued to engage African labour on terms very
close to slavery. This led Henrique Galväo, then Inspector-General of the
Colonies, to write in 1947: 'The situation is worse than simple slavery....
The native is not bought, he is hired by the State.... And his employer cares
nothing whether he falls ill or dies : he merely asks for a replacement. ' This
courageous voice was not the only one to be raised against a disgraceful state
of affairs, and several colonial careers were cut short because of protests by
officials unwilling to fall in with this system. But, as Antonio Carreira testifies,
having had direct experience of it, the majority were willing to be cogs in a
machine in which corruption arose from collusion between the administration
and private interests.
And, as always happened when the slave trade was flourishing, public
opinion only heeded the protests raised against abuses when it was ready to
do so, and only when conscience was no longer stifled by the interests at stake.

Trends of opinion within Portuguese society

Slavery formed part of the way of life of the Mediterranean peoples from
antiquity. In the fifteenth century it was a consequence of the wars against
the infidels, and drew its justification from that. The Church differentiated