Slavery, Indenture and Migrant Labour: Maritime Immigration from Mozambique to the Cape, c.1780–1880

Abstract

In the 1770s the Cape became an important destination for slaves from East Africa. This trade ended in 1808 with the implementation of the Act of Abolition but was quickly replaced by the importation of freed slaves seized from ships going to South America, who were subjected to 14-year apprenticeships. International treaties aimed at suppressing the slave trade brought an end to this forced immigration in 1818 but did little to curb the trans-Atlantic trade that soon turned Mozambique into a major supplier of slaves. With the rapid growth in the demand for slaves in Brazil and the Mascarenes Islands, southern Mozambique came to rival the northern ports in this trade. As the trade mushroomed, the Portuguese administration and its personnel quickly came to depend on the profits of this commerce. The emancipation of slaves at the Cape was followed by the entry of a new wave of freed slaves as the Royal Navy started to stop and search Portuguese ships in the southern hemisphere. By...