038840engo 2

Portuguese research on the slave trade 253

TABLE 1. Summary of the slave traffic^1

Periods From Bay

Arguim to

Palmas

Adults

Fifteenth century (1455-99) a 33,750

Sixteenth century^3 350,000

Sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries (1531-1680) *

Eighteenth century (1726-32

and 1797-1806)

(1756-94)^5 24,594

Nineteenth century (1800-36)^6 ...

(1837-50)^7

of

Cape

Children

72

From Cape Palmas

to Cape Lopo

Gonçalves

Adults Children

158,291

312,403 169

62,786

From Luanda and

Benguela

Adults Children

927,000

943,182 17,788

494,529 263

623,214 ...

TOTAL 408,344 72 533,480 169

Assuming that contraband

traffic amounted to around

50 per cent of the total shown

in customs records and that

other traffic was outside the

control of the Portuguese we

may add a further 204,172 (^36) 266,740 84
GRAND TOTAL 612,516 108 800,220 253
2,987,925 18,051
1,493,962 9,025
4,481,887 27,076

1. Most of these figures were obtained from the available Portuguese literature and through my
   own research in the Lisbon and Cape Verde archives. Certain details may have to be corrected
   or altered (figures, and origins and destinations) in the light of a study of the sources of the
   various authors. The figures for children include babies.


2. Figures estimated on the basis of 750 slaves shipped a year x 45 years.


3. As above on the basis of 3,500 slaves a year.


4. Statistics from Abreu e Brito and estimate by Cadornega.


5. 19,940 shipped by the Companhia de Gräo Para and the Companhia de Pernambuco e Paraiba;
   and 4,654 slaves shipped by individual traders in the period 1778-94.


6. The total number of slaves shipped from Angola in the nineteenth century was 1,117,743 adults
   and 263 children. The legal traffic (over 28 years) amounted to 494,529 adults and 263 children
   (= 494,792) giving an annual average of 17,691.


7. In the 12-year^1 period of illegal traffic in Angola, an average of 51,934 slaves a year were shipped,
   which adds 20.7 per cent to the legal traffic.

From Cape Palmas to Cape Lopo Gonçalves, comprising the area which

used to be known as Costa da Mina (Malagueta Coast—Liberia, Ivory Coast,

the Gold Coast (now Ghana), and the Slave Coast including the Forcados,

El-Rei and Escravos rivers).