Candido Term Paper: African Slave Trade
HIS295H5
Sarah Medeiros
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014
Neil Marshall
999681704
Book Review: An African Slaving Port on the Atlantic, by Mariana Candido
The impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on the people living in Angola during the seventeenth century onwards was monumental. The Portuguese presence in the Benguelan harbour caused disorder, social strain, and sociocultural transformation for the people specifically residing in Benguela. In the study An African Slaving Port on the Atlantic, Mariana Candido outlines the progression of Benguela starting from the primary Portuguese voyage in the seventeenth century until the mid-nineteenth century. She illustrates Benguela’s inauspicious beginnings and their growth into one of the most important trading ports in the world, and soon after one of the largest slave trading ports.1 The record of the Portuguese existence in Angola is explained in great detail, and Candido attempts to be as neutral as possible when speaking about delicate affairs. Her study on Benguela and its hinterland helps to secure the records of the Central Highlands of Angola according to their unique areas.2 Her study on how the Benguelan slave port affected the Atlantic world is a captivating, and also intelligently and well put-together read for those who want to know how colonialism took over Angola’s ports.
The book focuses on the port of Benguela, which had a populous city in Angola, Africa. Candido focuses on the trans-Atlantic slave trade which occurred in Benguela, instead of what she believed had been the more popular studied sites of African ports north of the equator. Her study is the first full-length history of Benguela and its hinterland to be written in English3, as well as one of the first to not be written from the perspective of Portuguese colonial defense.
Through her exploration of the Benguela’s port history from the initial relationship established between the local population and the Portuguese beginning in the
Sarah Medeiros
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014
Neil Marshall
999681704
Book Review: An African Slaving Port on the Atlantic, by Mariana Candido
The impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on the people living in Angola during the seventeenth century onwards was monumental. The Portuguese presence in the Benguelan harbour caused disorder, social strain, and sociocultural transformation for the people specifically residing in Benguela. In the study An African Slaving Port on the Atlantic, Mariana Candido outlines the progression of Benguela starting from the primary Portuguese voyage in the seventeenth century until the mid-nineteenth century. She illustrates Benguela’s inauspicious beginnings and their growth into one of the most important trading ports in the world, and soon after one of the largest slave trading ports.1 The record of the Portuguese existence in Angola is explained in great detail, and Candido attempts to be as neutral as possible when speaking about delicate affairs. Her study on Benguela and its hinterland helps to secure the records of the Central Highlands of Angola according to their unique areas.2 Her study on how the Benguelan slave port affected the Atlantic world is a captivating, and also intelligently and well put-together read for those who want to know how colonialism took over Angola’s ports.
The book focuses on the port of Benguela, which had a populous city in Angola, Africa. Candido focuses on the trans-Atlantic slave trade which occurred in Benguela, instead of what she believed had been the more popular studied sites of African ports north of the equator. Her study is the first full-length history of Benguela and its hinterland to be written in English3, as well as one of the first to not be written from the perspective of Portuguese colonial defense.
Through her exploration of the Benguela’s port history from the initial relationship established between the local population and the Portuguese beginning in the
Cited: Candido, Mariana P. An African Slaving Port and the Atlantic World: Benguela and its Hinterland. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2013.