The Atlantic Slave Trade from Angola: A Port-by-Port Estimate of Slaves Embarked, 1701-1867

Abstract

Angola served as the principal source of slaves for the Americas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These slaves embarked from ports controlled by the Portuguese, who had established a strong presence in West Central Africa since the sixteenth century, and from ports dominated by African polities, located mostly north of Luanda, capital of the Portuguese colony in Angola. Estimates of the number of slaves leaving the region usually focus on the two principal Portuguese ports of embarkation, Luanda and Benguela. These estimates rarely provide information on the number of slaves leaving African controlled ports such as Cabinda, Molembo, and the Congo River. This paper will use …