The Cape Lopez Africans at Maranhão: Geo-political literacy, British consuls, and the demise of the transatlantic slave trade to Brazil

Abstract

In early November 1845, sailors from H.M.S. Alert boarded an unnamed vessel off Cape Lopez, Gabon, Africa. Inside its hold they found fifty-eight shackled Africans. Placing a prize crew on the slaver, Commander Charles Bosanquet requested that Lieutenant Noel K. Wasey sail the captured ship to Freetown, Sierra Leone, for adjudication. Facing difficult winds and currents, Wasey shifted course, destination São Luis, Maranhão, Brazil. In January 1846, the captured schooner ran aground in the port of São Luis. Learning of its arrival, a gang of traffickers kidnapped the Africans and transported them to the interior of the province as slaves. Documents preserved in Brazil and England provide insights into the lives and escapes of four of the Africans. The events at Maranhão shed light on key variables that contributed to ending the slave traffic to Brazil in the early 1850s.