A Precatory of the Inquisition and the Slave Trade in West Central Africa (late 16th and early 17th centuries)

Abstract

Through the transcription and analysis of the "Rodrigo Aires Precatory," the paper presents unprecedented elements about the slave trade in Central-West Africa, between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. It consists of a collection of documents resulting from a payment order from the Inquisition in favor of the mother of the slave trader Aires Fernandes, Maria Fernandes, as his heir, represented by another son, Rodrigo Aires. The collection ranges from documents of the slave trader´s imprisonment in 1595 to the final impasses of the process that returned to the Inquisition in 1604. This period marked the beginning of a process that Linda M. Heywood and John K. Thornton termed the "Angola Wave," during which the slave trade from this region surpassed that of West Africa. The "Precatory" reveals details about this trade, both in its Atlantic connections and in the African hinterlands, and the involvement of various agents and institutions: governors-general; contractors; civil and religious authorities; chiefs and enslaved Africans; and the Inquisition itself.