Session Abstract

This session will examine the political and commercial factors within West Central Africa that catalyzed the enslavement and expulsion of thousands of war captives to the Caribbean and Mexico during the long seventeenth century. In bridging precolonial African history with Latin American colonial studies, these presentations explore the quotidian experiences of key African political figures, prominent slave traders in the Atlantic and innumerable war captives in Central Mexico. As shall be seen, the history of West Central Africa must be studied not only in Matamba, Ndongo and Kongo, but also in the ports of the Atlantic and the urban centers of colonial Mexico. The seventeenth century was a time of great instability for the millions of people living in West Central Africa, particularly in the kingdoms of Ndongo, Kongo and Matamba. Internal political strife, Imbangala military incursions, and an increasingly aggressive European presence along the Atlantic coast, all contributed to endemic warfare that devastated the region. As a result, hundreds of Portuguese slaveships would transport thousands of West Central African war captives to the ports of Spanish and Portuguese America. These often mislabeled "Angolas" would play a crucial role in revitalizing the moribund indigenous populations of the Caribbean and Mexico.  

David Wheat's paper will analyze the role played by residents of Sao Paulo de Luanda in the articulation of slaving routes from Angola to the circum-Caribbean during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. By studying the shipping records generated by Luanda elites, this study will explore the mechanisms of the slave trade in order to better understand the lived experiences of the involuntary participants of the "Angola wave" to Latin America. In her examination of West Central African politics, Linda Heywood highlights the role played by Matamba's rulers in the slave trade after the death of the powerful Queen Njinga Mbandi in 1663. Whereas Njinga had bequeathed an independent state to her successors, Portuguese demand for slaves from the region during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries ultimately resulted in increased warfare and political collapse for Matamba. Pablo Sierra's presentation will focus on the massive influx of young Angolan slaves to the colonial Mexican city of Puebla de los Ángeles during the first half of the seventeenth century. For thousands of West Central Africans, Puebla's plazas, convents, and textile mills would represent the end point for an involuntary migration that began 8000 miles away. The presence of such a large Angolan population in New Spain's second-largest urban center forces us to reconsider the role played by the highly influential "encomendero de negros" in making Puebla a lucrative slave market.

As a result, this panel will address the various West Central African experiences that would characterize seventeenth-century life within the states of Ngola and Matamba, across the ports of the Atlantic and Caribbean, and into the urban centers of Central Mexico.