African Enslavement and Consumption in Angola during the Nineteenth Century

Historians have long sought for the origins and causes of the enslavement of thousands of Africans leaving Angola in the nineteenth century. The traditional explanation asserts that enslaved Africans sold across the Atlantic were victims
of wars waged by the Lunda Empire, in the deep interior of West Central Africa. However, new archival data discovered recently indicate that the majority of Africans leaving Angola in the nineteenth century came from regions much closer
to the coast than previously thought. This paper provides a new interpretation about the enslavement of these Africans based on the new archival data available and the customs records of Luanda, the principal port of slave embarkation in
Angola. It proposes that the spread of consumer goods at lower prices changed the means of enslavement in the interior, making debts, kidnappings, and judicial proceedings the primary forms of enslavement of Africans leaving Angola in the nineteenth century.