CONTESTED
LEGACIES
PORTUGAL
The Early Atlantic Slave Trade in Portugal: A Digital Archive of Contested Legacies
++SITES
LAGOS
LISBON
- Terreiro do Paço
- Casa dos Escravos
- Rua Nova dos Mercadores
- Campo das Cebolas
- Chafariz d’El-Rei
- Church of São Domingos
- Court of the Inquisition
- Rua do Poço dos Negros
- Monument to the Discoveries
++OBJECTIVES
- This digital archive aims to excavate and document the legacy of the early Atlantic slave trade in Portugal. We deal with sites in which the controversial memory of slavery ...
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++CONTRIBUTORS
1. Arlindo Manuel Caldeira
2. Pedro Cardim
3. Paula Cardoso
4. Gabriela Có
5. Beatriz Gomez Dias
6. Djuzé (Batoto Yetu)
7. Naky Gaglo
8. Giuseppe Marcocci
9. María Elena Morán Hernández
10. Ricardo Roque
11. Sofia Yala
PARTNERS
2. Casa dos Escravos
Mapping Coordinates: 38.7147° N, 9.1388° W
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Status: Uncontested
Created in 1486 and specifically tasked with the management of enslaved people, the Casa dos Escravos (Slave House) was a department of the Casa da Guiné e da Mina (Guinea and Mina House), a state-run structure established in Lisbon in 1482 to regulate and monitor the Portuguese economic activities in West Africa. After the Portuguese had reached the India Ocean, the Casa da Índia (India House) was also created, but the two structures were under the same factor (feitor) and are often called in the sources Mina and India House or just India House. This document is taken from the 1509 regulations and specifically refers to the administrative treatment that enslaved people went through once the ships on which they were deported reached Lisbon.
From the archives
Taking charge of the arrival of a slave ship (1509)
Chapter 23: How to deal with the slaves coming from Guinea: Every time one of those caravels or ships sent by our officials to the rivers or any other parts of Guinea returns with slaves onboard, our factor, treasurer, and clerks of the Guinea House, together with the tax collector and the clerks of the Slave House, will immediately make their way towards it before it lowers a boat and will look for the captain, clerk and all the rest of the crew… Our factor… will make… all slaves who are carried on that ship come out on deck, and his clerks will note them all down for the treasurer so that later they can be recorded as income in his account books with the itemised list of the price of each of them. The slaves will be unloaded, together with any other of our goods and gold that will be onboard… The slaves [will be brought] to the designated [Slave] House in which the tax collector will keep them… The treasurer will then make the tax collector responsible for the slaves… Then, on the same day, if possible, or the next day, our factor, together with the treasurer and clerks [of the Guinea House], will price the slaves, that is, [will determine] the right value of each piece as much as it can be established; he will write the price on a sheet of parchment which will be hung at the neck of each slave… and as long as the slaves are under the tax collector’s responsibility, the factor will make sure to see, visit and take care of them, so that none of them die or get lost for lack of good treatment and care, as often happens…
(Regulations of the India and Mina Houses, 3 July 1509, in Lisbon, Biblioteca Central da Marinha)
Chapter 23: How to deal with the slaves coming from Guinea: Every time one of those caravels or ships sent by our officials to the rivers or any other parts of Guinea returns with slaves onboard, our factor, treasurer, and clerks of the Guinea House, together with the tax collector and the clerks of the Slave House, will immediately make their way towards it before it lowers a boat and will look for the captain, clerk and all the rest of the crew… Our factor… will make… all slaves who are carried on that ship come out on deck, and his clerks will note them all down for the treasurer so that later they can be recorded as income in his account books with the itemised list of the price of each of them. The slaves will be unloaded, together with any other of our goods and gold that will be onboard… The slaves [will be brought] to the designated [Slave] House in which the tax collector will keep them… The treasurer will then make the tax collector responsible for the slaves… Then, on the same day, if possible, or the next day, our factor, together with the treasurer and clerks [of the Guinea House], will price the slaves, that is, [will determine] the right value of each piece as much as it can be established; he will write the price on a sheet of parchment which will be hung at the neck of each slave… and as long as the slaves are under the tax collector’s responsibility, the factor will make sure to see, visit and take care of them, so that none of them die or get lost for lack of good treatment and care, as often happens…
(Regulations of the India and Mina Houses, 3 July 1509, in Lisbon, Biblioteca Central da Marinha)
Original
Capítulo 23°: Da maneira que se therá com os escravos que vêm de Guiné: Quando quer que vier alguma caravela ou navio com escravos, d’armaçoens que por nossos officieaes forem feitas pera os rios, ou de quaesquer outras partes da Guiné, donde pera nos venham, o nosso Feitor, Thezoureiro y Escrivaens da Caza da Guiné, com o Almoxarife e Escrivão dos Escravos, hirá logo a ella antes que lance batel fora, y buscaram o navio, Capitam, Escrivão, y toda outra companha que nelle vier… o ditto nosso Feitor… fará … tirar sobre cobertas todollos escravos que no tal navio vierem, e os dittos Escrivaens assentaram logo todos em suas imentas sobre o ditto nosso Thezoureiro, pera por ellas serem depois levados aos livros de sua recepta, com declaração dos preços em que depois forem avaliados, y os tiraram em terraa com qualquer mercaderia e ouro nosso que hi vier… os dittos escravos á Caza ordemnada em que os tem o Almoxarife delles… sobre o ditto Almoxarife dos escravos seram logo passados per entrega os dittos escravos da mão do ditto nosso Thezoureiro… logo então, ou em esse dia, se poder ser, y se não a outro dia seguinte, o ditto nosso Feyttor, com os dittos Thezoureiros, Escrivaens, hirão avaliar os dittos escravos, scilicet, cada peça por sy em sua justa valha segundo melhor entenderem, escreveram os preços, que lhe forem postos, em escritos de pergaminho que se lançaram aos pescossos dos dittos escravos… e emquanto os dittos escravos estiverem em poder do ditto Almoxarife athe os acabar de dispender, o ditto Feittor teraa sempre cuidado de os ver e vezittar y fazer cura, de maneira que por mingoa de bom trauto y cura nom moyram nem se percão alguns, como muntas vezes acontesse...
Capítulo 23°: Da maneira que se therá com os escravos que vêm de Guiné: Quando quer que vier alguma caravela ou navio com escravos, d’armaçoens que por nossos officieaes forem feitas pera os rios, ou de quaesquer outras partes da Guiné, donde pera nos venham, o nosso Feitor, Thezoureiro y Escrivaens da Caza da Guiné, com o Almoxarife e Escrivão dos Escravos, hirá logo a ella antes que lance batel fora, y buscaram o navio, Capitam, Escrivão, y toda outra companha que nelle vier… o ditto nosso Feitor… fará … tirar sobre cobertas todollos escravos que no tal navio vierem, e os dittos Escrivaens assentaram logo todos em suas imentas sobre o ditto nosso Thezoureiro, pera por ellas serem depois levados aos livros de sua recepta, com declaração dos preços em que depois forem avaliados, y os tiraram em terraa com qualquer mercaderia e ouro nosso que hi vier… os dittos escravos á Caza ordemnada em que os tem o Almoxarife delles… sobre o ditto Almoxarife dos escravos seram logo passados per entrega os dittos escravos da mão do ditto nosso Thezoureiro… logo então, ou em esse dia, se poder ser, y se não a outro dia seguinte, o ditto nosso Feyttor, com os dittos Thezoureiros, Escrivaens, hirão avaliar os dittos escravos, scilicet, cada peça por sy em sua justa valha segundo melhor entenderem, escreveram os preços, que lhe forem postos, em escritos de pergaminho que se lançaram aos pescossos dos dittos escravos… e emquanto os dittos escravos estiverem em poder do ditto Almoxarife athe os acabar de dispender, o ditto Feittor teraa sempre cuidado de os ver e vezittar y fazer cura, de maneira que por mingoa de bom trauto y cura nom moyram nem se percão alguns, como muntas vezes acontesse...