Registries and notes from the hinterland: research internship in Portuguese collections about politics, commerce and labor in Angolan Central Highlands (1840's to 1860's)

Abstract

With the prohibition of transatlantic slave trade in the Portuguese colonies in 1836 and the subsequent growth in the demand of colonial goods like ivory, wax and copal, the region currently known as Angolan Central Highlands suffered intense political, economical and social changes throughout the XIXth century. Since most of the region was out of Portuguese jurisdiction during almost the whole century, the registry by "sertanejo" traders, agents of the most diverse social and cultural origins that were hired by the coastal merchants to trade goods in the hinterlands, are essential sources to the study of the social history of the Central African peoples who lived in the continent's hinterlands. To pursue the master's research financed by FAPESP named "Trade, Politics and Labor in the Angola's Hinterland: "sertanejos" and Central Africans in the pages of António da Silva Porto (1841-1869)" (process number 2018/13073-0), which subject are the relations between politics, trade and labor that permeated daily the lives of the social agents involved in the long-distance trade caravans, this BEPE project aims to allow the visit of the collections of Portuguese archives and libraries that keep pivotal documents to the study of "sertanejos" and central African peoples involved in the long-distance trade in the mid-XIXth century. (AU)