From Capture to Sale: The Portuguese Slave Trade to Spanish South America in the Early Seventeenth Century

Abstract

Reading Linda A. Newson and Susie Minchin’s study From Capture to Sale on the administration and handling of the purchase, transport, and sale of African slaves to South America is most illuminating. Although literature dealing with the tragic history of compulsive African immigration to America is abundant, there still exist lacunae concerning such seemingly simple matters as the actual composition of slave diets, food prices, or medical care during the Middle Passage in the early seventeenth century. This investigation is based on the extraordinarily rich and complete documentation of 750 folios concerning the first two slave-trading expeditions undertaken by a young Portuguese of New Christian ancestry, Manuel Bautista Pérez, and his agents, found in the Archivo General de Peru in Lima.The fascination of the book lies in the uncensored inside glimpse at the slave business that we get thanks to Manuel Bautista’s testimony. He wrote without moral or political intentions regarding his audience but solely from the standpoint of a young man starting his career in an obviously high-risk business, where profits could only be made in the Americas. Although the Portuguese slave trade in the early seventeenth century was small in scale compared to later periods, it surpassed later trade in the complexity of the network of business relations that were needed to sustain it. For a single slave-trading expedition, Manuel Bautista details commercial transactions with over one hundred people, not including investors or bureaucrats in the Iberian Peninsula.Nutritional care for the slaves was poor, and because of bad conditions in their home regions quite a number of Africans were already suffering from malnutrition before being enslaved. Following their capture, one of the highest risks to their lives seems to have been poor hygienic conditions combined with the scarcity of food and water. Above all, scurvy and dysentery took their toll. On arriving at port, a doctor examined the slaves, and those ill with obviously contagious diseases had to remain on board.Again taxes and bribes had to be paid while a tedious bureaucratic procedure was undertaken. Meanwhile the slaves were taken to slave sheds or even private houses. As soon as possible the first group of slaves was sold, usually within 10 to 15 days of arrival at Cartagena. The profit made was not very high, reaching only a bit more than 10 percent. For many slaves Cartagena was only an intermediate stop, Lima being their final destination. Slave traders tried to maximize their profits by minimizing mortality and restoring sick slaves to health during the time in which slaves were purchased in Cartagena and before they set out for Lima or other parts of Peru. Slaves were provided with enough nourishment, even with special diets for the sick. The slave traders engaged healers, curanderos as well as licensed doctors, for those in need. Here again Newson and Minchin analyze in detail the food and beverage the slaves received. Pork, poultry, and fish were bought by the slave traders as well as citrus and other fruit, vegetables, and even wine. While reading these details one is curious to know more about the specific relationship between slave trader and slaves. Although slaves were treated like Portuguese or Spaniards, receiving a high quality diet, having healers or doctors coming to see them, and even being treated in local Spanish hospitals, these same doctors bought and treated the sick Africans only to make a profit out of them, selling them as soon as they were cured. This ambivalent relation between all those engaged in one way or another in the slave business and the enslaved Africans is worth further investigation.This study can be recommended to all readers interested in the history of the slave trade to Spanish America. A general audience as well as students of slave history will gain from the clear structure of the study following the different stages of slave trade. Thanks to the rich material presented in 7 appendixes, 7 figures, 7 maps, and 31 tables, the study is equally valuable to the specialist.