REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS OF THE WEST CENTRAL AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE: LOOKING BEHIND THE NUMBERS

Filipa Ribeiro da Silva Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences and Stacey Sommerdyk University of the Witwatersrand

he Slave Voyages Database is the most significant work on the quantification of the Atlantic slave trade to have appeared Tsince Philip D. Curtin produced his census of the commerce. 1 As the first resource of its kind compiled by economic historians of the transatlantic slave trade the authors should be commended for realizing a project of such enormous breadth and vision. Yet due to the innovative nature of the resource, the creators have faced multiple unforeseen issues in the categorization and dissemination of this material. Equally, in light of the overwhelming conclusiveness of the study, economic historians are left asking themselves the question of what is next. Using the West Central African coast as a case study this paper will explore two key areas of the database which, with some modifications, could begin to inform and guide new research directions. First, this article will examine the geographical categorization of West Central Africa and will demonstrate how the flexibility of geographical interpretation in West Central Africa can be problematic. The authors of this paper propose a more in depth definition of the geography, paying special attention to Dutch sources on the Loango Coast. Second, the paper will discuss inherent problems within the database’s categories. Ship captains and ship owners have been categorized according to an English model and are incompatible with the Portuguese and Spanish documentation. This paper will conclude with suggestions for uses of the database which move beyond simple enumeration of the slave trade into questions about the formation of merchant communities, the interconnectivity of merchant networks will be studied as well as the process of African Economic History v.37(2009):77–105

78 F. R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK database creation and how it can inform historians in the creation of future databases.

I: A New Geographical Categorization for West Central Africa and Its Implications

Beginning with the issue of geography, regional definition is a problem that plagues all scholars of the transatlantic slave trade. This difficulty springs from a lack of geographical standardization in European shipping documents throughout the slave trade. This is particularly pronounced in the region of West Central Africa as the Dutch, Portuguese, English and French all possessed differing definitions of the coastal region. Although some scholars including Martin, Postma, and Manning clearly define the Loango Coast as a separate trading region, 2 the overwhelming trend is to approach the West Central Coast as one trading community as exhibited by the Slave Voyages Database . Despite the many benefits of having an online resource with a vast amount of information, the formatting of the African Voyages Database results in some significant limits when studying specific regions within the vast definitions of West Central Africa. The current version requires the user to have an intimate knowledge of the sources in order to use the data and assumes that they are able to identify the geographic location of the twenty-three ports listed.3 Even with that level of awareness, the degree of flexibility within interpretations is extremely high. This is exhibited by Roquinado Ferreira’s Suppression of the Slave Trade and Slave Departures from Angola, 1830s-1860s , in which he defines the entire West Central African coast as “Angola” suggesting Portuguese dominance in the entire region. 4 The category of West Central Africa encompasses a number of geographical regions with conflicting definitions. The primary terms used to describe sections of this coast are Angola, Kongo, and Loango. While Kongo and Loango are fairly linear categories - Kongo being an African community situated to the south of the Congo River and Loango being an African community to the North of the Congo River – the definition of Angola’s location and size differs from one group of European traders to the next and shifts significantly over time. REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS 79

In Warfare in Atlantic Africa 1500-1800 , John K. Thornton defines three “military-diplomatic regions” in Atlantic Africa: Upper Guinea, Lower Guinea and Angola. He suggests that people within these regions “had more interactions among themselves than with those lying around them.” 5 Within this context, Thornton defines Angola as “the whole of west central Africa, from the coast of Gabon to Angola.” 6 This definition inherently possesses a difficulty: Angola is both a region and a distinct sub-region. Having defined the region, what is the definition of the sub-region? This is a difficult question to answer as definitions can shift over time. Using Portuguese sources, Thornton suggests that the initial Portuguese colony of Angola was formed in the 1580s. The Portuguese gained a foothold by inserting themselves in a war between the Kongo and the Ndongo peoples of this area. Thus, at the dawn of the seventeenth century, Angola was a small colony centered in Luanda and hemmed in by Kongo to the north and Ndongo to the east. Throughout the seventeenth century the Portuguese, using Imbagala allies, pressed steadily eastward gaining land and slaves from the Ndongo. 7 The eighteenth century was characterized by less intense fighting, minimal expansion of the Angola colony, and frequent raids to supply the slave trade. The Portuguese colony exerted nominal power over its subjects in the vicinity of the colony who engaged in frequent “low key wars.” 8 In Kingdoms of the Savanna , Jan Vansina aptly reminds us: “The conquest of Angola is something that lasted for centuries.” 9 Using current maps of Angola, which reach from the Congo River in the north (including the hotly contested region of Cabinda to the north of the Congo River) to the Kalahari Desert in the south and reach roughly a third of the way to the eastern African coast and include Cabinda, it is almost impossible to project backwards and imagine the Angola of the transatlantic slave trade era. In addition to the problem presented by fluctuating definitions is the problem of variation within the European definitions themselves. The Dutch present a contrasting definition of Angola altogether. Postma addresses this issue in 1990 in The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600-1815 : “The northernmost portion of [the west central African Coast], between Cameroon and the Congo River, was generally referred to by the Dutch as Angola, although it has also been referred to as Loango after the seventeenth century African state 80 F. R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK in that region. This mixing of historical and contemporary labels can be confusing.” 10 To avoid this confusion Postma chooses to use the term Loango-Angola in reference to the region north of the Congo. Postma goes on to explain:

Contemporary Dutch documents nearly always referred to [West Central Africa] as Angola, although after 1649 they really meant the area north of the Congo River. This area would be more appropriately referred to as Loango, after the dominant state of the region during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. 11 While Postma’s demarcation of the Dutch sphere of influence in West Central Africa is useful, Phyllis Martin’s terminology, which locates the Loango coast to the north of the Congo River and the Angola coast to the south of the Congo River, is the specific language favored by this paper. 12

Moving from the general to the specific, another example of confusing geography on the West Central African coast is found in the category “Congo North.” Masquerading under the title of “Port,” this first garnered attention as 88 percent of enslaved Africans from this “port” embarked on Dutch ships. This is by far the category with the highest Dutch involvement on the Loango Coast (as shown below in Table 1). Further research showed that Postma collected the data for 176 of the 238 voyages in this category. This raises several important questions: What was Postma’s original purpose in creating this category? Do the original sources contain more detailed information? And perhaps most importantly, how did this key information get lost in between the databases? This first question can be easily answered by looking at Postma’s 1990 analysis of his Dutch data. Here he explained his interpretation of the term “Angola” as meaning north of the Congo River or the Loango Coast (as explained above). 13 However, the organizing principle of the database focuses on the slaving hinterland rather than on how Europeans defined the coast, or indeed how trade was conducted in various regions. Even so, Martin offers compelling evidence that, in addition to the overlapping slave supply from the Luanda hinterland via the Congo River, traders of the Loango Coast purchased numerous slaves from the same northern and eastern traders from whom they sought ivory and copper. 14 Thus, even if slaving hinterlands are the criteria for REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS 81 separating the coast, the Loango Coast still stands out as a distinct region. This raises another issue that can be addressed in answering the last two questions. It was only upon searching the codes section of the first Transatlantic Slave Trade Database on CDROM that the location became clear: “Congo North (no dominant location, [Cape] Lopez to Congo).”15 This implies this region, otherwise referred to as the Loango Coast, is a separate category from the Angolan coast. It is unclear why the authors chose to leave this as a distinct category rather than including it in the category of West Central Africa if the region is not of distinct significance. Along the 1200 km stretch of coast referred to as West Central Africa, Europeans traded at 19 known locations for the purchase of slaves. From north to south, these are the locations recorded by European traders from which slaves were embarked: Mayumba, Kiloango, Loango [including Boary], Malembo, Cabinda, Congo North, Congo River, Rio Zaire [Congo River], Mpinda, Ambriz, Rio Dande [Dande River], St. Paul de Loanda [Luanda], Salinas, Coanza River [Kwanza River], Ambona, Benguela Velho [Old Benguela], Nova Redonda, Quicombo [Kikombo], and Benguela. Table 1, below, provides significantly more detail on how the boundary of the Loango Coast and Angola Coasts. Using the Slave Voyages Database to establish Mpinda as the northern most port which trades a majority of its slaves to the Portuguese, the West Central African coast is split into two regions. This allows researchers to calculate the number of exports from the Loango coast alone. Of the 2.7 million enslaved Africans embarked from located ports on the West Central African coast, 870,000 slaves were embarked at the Loango coast and 1.8 million slaves were embarked at the Angola Coast (see Table 1). Scholars with more expertise in Portuguese Angola may even suggest a further separation of Benguela from Luanda, though this reaches beyond the boundaries of this paper.16 Having extrapolated these numbers from the actual data, it is possible to further speculate that of the 3.2 million slaves who embarked from this coast, one third embarked from the Loango coast and two thirds from the Angolan coast. Even with this separation, the Angola coast remained the most significant supplier of slaves to the Atlantic slave trade, while the Loango coast emerged as a separate category which remained among the top four exporters of enslaved Africans exporting comparable 82 F. R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK numbers of enslaved Africans to the Bights of Biafra and Benin (see Table 2). Through observing patterns of European trade on the West Central African Coast, this division between north and south becomes more distinct (see Graphs 1 & 2 and Table 1). Although the Slave Voyages Database clearly indicates Portuguese dominance on the West Central African coast with the Portuguese trading 67 percent of the 3.2 million enslaved Africans, 17 this information is misleading and gives the impression of Portuguese domination of the entire West Central African coast. By separating the ports of the Loango coast a very different profile of traders emerges. Using the known data, Table 1 clearly demonstrated the separation of the Loango and Angola coast (above). By focusing on the Loango coast data, Graph 1 illustrates that traders using the Portuguese flag had only nominal engagement in the slave trade on the Loango coast before 1810. 18 Contrary to popular belief, this graph shows the Netherlands, Great Britain, and France as clearly dominating the trade between 1650 and 1810, while the Portuguese dominated the slave trade on the coast for a mere forty years between 1810 and 1850. Thus a pattern of free trade dominated the slave trade on the Loango coast, while the Angolan coast was distinct for its Portuguese dominated trade. However the degree to which these differing patterns of trade were dependent on local politics must remain the topic for an additional study. Dividing the West Central African coast in this manner provides a radically different pattern of European influence. This is exemplified when exploring the case of the Dutch on the Loango Coast. Switching from the hard numbers of the Slave Voyages Database to the estimates, the database suggest approximately 5.7 million slaves embarked from the West Central African coast of which Portugal/Brazil accounts for 4 million or 70 percent of these slaves while the Dutch account for a mere 200,000 or 3.6 percent.19 However, if the coast is divided at Mpinda as exhibited in Table 1, the concentration of Dutch activity on the Loango Coast is far more pronounced as is evident in Graph 3. For the Dutch, the Loango Coast was the most significant coast in the transatlantic slave trade, embarking almost 150,000 slaves, followed by 125,000 in the Bight of Benin and 100,000 on the Gold

Graph 1: Slave Exports from the Loango Coast by Ship Flag 1514–1800

70000

60000

Other (specify in note) 50000 Denmark / Baltic 40000 France

30000 U.S.A. Netherlands 20000 Great Britain

10000 Portugal / Brazil Spain / Uruguay 0

84 F. R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK

Graph 2: Slave Exports from the Loango Coast by Ship Flag, 1800–1864

200000 180000 160000 140000 120000 100000 80000 60000 40000 20000 0

Spain / Uruguay Portugal / Brazil Great Britain Netherlands U.S.A. France Denmark / Baltic Other

Coast. Interestingly, the Dutch transported 16 percent of all slaves embarked at the Loango Coast. If these numbers can be seen as indicators of European importance to the formation and evolution of merchant communities on the African coast, then this is an area where the Dutch played an unusually large role. Second only to their importance to the slave trade on the Windward Coast where they engaged in 23 percent of the slave trade but also where the supply of slaves was far less substantial: the Dutch exported an estimated 80,000 of a total 340,000 slaves. 20 The radically different picture of Dutch influence which emerges through the re-categorization of the West Central African coast is only one of the many potential insights into understanding the complex and overlapping trades which existed on the Loango and

REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS 85

Angolan coast. Evidence indicates that the Loango coast trade drew from a north eastern hinterland not accessible to Luanda traders. Differing trade patterns of European engagement further solidifies this separation. While acknowledging these differences, the redefinition of geographical regions to include these distinctions would also resolve the problem of the awkward category of “Congo North” as a “port.” It could be easily redefined as “Loango Coast undefined.” Additionally, it is important to note that no matter how West Central African regions are defined or where the boundaries are formed, to view these regional categories as fixed and immovable categories with contained systems would be short-sighted. Instead, the Loango and Angola coast can best be understood as overlapping spheres with distinct but interconnecting systems, as are all of the regions of the Western African slave trade. The next section will highlight one aspect of this interconnectivity by exploring the presence of slave merchants within the Slave Voyages Database .

Graph 3: Flag of Ships Embarking Slaves at the Loango Coast

Great Britain 14% Portugal / Brazil 40%

Netherlands 16%

Spain / Uruguay U.S.A. 1% 6% Other 0%

Denmark / France Baltic 23% 0%

Table 1: Numbers of Enslaved Africans Embarked in the Primary West Central African Ports by Ship Flag

Port Spain / Portugal / Great Netherlands U.S.A. France Other Totals Uruguay Brazil Britain NORTH Cabinda 4,276 241,198 29,572 6,521 10,347 55,972 347,886 ∗ Congo North 140 1,034 4,179 78,057 2,635 2,859 100 89,004 Congo River 5,132 32,022 39,113 37,797 3,392 1,812 119,268 Rio Zaire 2,542 2,542 Kilongo 1,145 1,145 Loango 3,727 5,176 23,293 23,148 4,873 55,311 115,528 Malembo 63,066 24,572 25,742 77,843 191,223 Mayumba 210 212 716 149 1,309 2,596 Mpinda 2,554 2,554 SOUTH Ambona 1,016 1,016 Ambriz 1,895 61,486 11,646 4,853 4,665 84,545 Benguela 3,982 336,442 1,537 331 391 342,683 Benguela Velho 401 401 Nova Redonda 1,795 1,795 Quicombo 622 622 Salinas 572 572 Luanda 5,424 1,350,134 1,304 15,827 107 801 475 1,374,072 Total 2,677,452

∗“Congo North” is equivalent to “Loango Coast Undefined" as argued above .

Table 2: Total Documented Enslaved Africans Embarked for Shipment to the Americas Divided by Region

Embarkation Region A) Slaves B) Estimate Regional Totals Embarked (from B) West Africa Senegambia and offshore Atlantic 425,463 755,513 Sierra Leone 236,570 388,771 Windward Coast 181,358 336,868 Gold Coast 737,236 1,209,321 Bight of Benin 1,534,827 1,999,060 Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands 1,084,413 1,594,560 6,284,093 West Central Africa Loango Coast 1,083,407 1,854,085 Angolan Coast 2,244,188 3,840,490 5,694,575 Other Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean islands 378,283 542,668 Other Africa 330,661 0 Asia & Africa 490 0 542,668 Total 8,236,896 12,521,336 12,521,336

Sources: http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/estimates.faces and http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/database/search.faces ; Accessed 12 March 2010.

Table 3: Estimation of Slaves Embarked in Western Africa by Region and Flag

Spain/ Portugal/ Great Nether- Denmark/ Regions U.S.A. France Totals Uruguay Brazil Britain lands Baltic Senegambia & off - 122,088 221,612 226,637 9,205 43,791 124,247 7,933 755,513 shore Atlantic Sierra Leone 85,432 16,907 163,393 2,276 56,494 61,048 3,221 388,771 Windward Coast 10,558 9,248 200,905 79,102 13,375 23,681 0 336,868 Gold Coast 6,705 68,394 718,127 103,375 126,259 115,574 70,887 1,209,321 Bight of Benin 132,018 1,009,212 353,853 126,913 4,402 348,897 23,765 1,999,060 Bight of Biafra 188,288 156,167 1,030,582 28,677 7,037 182,284 1,525 1,594,560 West Central Africa 432,789 4,018,540 534,280 204,788 29,464 472,288 2,425 5,694,574 South -east Africa & 83,646 348,185 31,663 0 24,504 53,383 1,286 542,668 Indian Ocean Totals 1,061,524 5,848,265 3,259,440 554,336 305,326 1,381,404 111,041 12,521,336 REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS 89

II: Categorization of the Slave Merchants: Problems, omissions and their implications

Having explored the geographical challenges highlighted in the discourse surrounding the Slave Voyages Database , we will now shift our focus to the implications of the database in the study of this hideous trade from the perspective of business history. The current version of the Slave Voyages Database available online offers a considerable amount of data about the names of the ships, their owners and captains. The availability of search options within these categories seems ideal if the reconstruction of the activities of a specific businessman, a merchant house or firm within a defined time frame is desired. For the regions being scrutinized in this paper, this type of search might be extremely useful to reconstruct the activities of private merchants operating side-by-side with commercial companies, like the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie. The name search poses, however, multiple challenges to scholars interested in studying the organization of the trade and European, or American and African engagement. Using the question of identifying networks of slave merchants operating simultaneously in West Central Africa and in other regions of the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, this section will explore the possibilities for future research while highlighting some of the issues with the definitions and limitations of the Slave Voyages Database ’s organizational model. 21 The main difficulties in utilizing the database become apparent when using the categories of ship captain and ship owner and also by the absence of crucial elements for the reconstruction of commercial activities and webs, such as freighters, insurers, credit providers, agents, and brokers, which are highlighted in the following pages. The categories of ship owner and ship captain used in the database present several problems, especially if researchers are examining non-English participation in the slave trade. These categories were created according to an English model, which does not neatly fit the multiple Portuguese and Spanish categories for crew leadership and ship ownership. For example, Portuguese and Spanish distinctions between shipmaster, ship’s commander, and ship’s pilot are lost when conflated into the category of ship captain. This loss of information is evident when reexamining primary sources and

90 F.R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK multiple professional categories re-emerge, such as ship’s pilot, commander, captain, master, and so on. Each of these terms has distinct meanings in the context of Portuguese and Spanish maritime enterprises (see Table 4). The same principle applies to the multiple forms of rights that businessmen held over ships. Some of this information is lost due to the expanded categorization of ship owner. Owning a ship as an item implied a set of rights over the property ( propriedade ). Within the Iberian World, these rights were distinct from rights of someone owning the use of a ship ( senhorio ), as property. As a consequence, both legally and in practice, the ownership of a vessel as an object and the right to its use could either be in the hands of two separate merchants or more, or of a single merchant (see Table 5). The single field in the new Slave Voyages Database for vessels ownership does not address the distinctions mentioned above. Moreover, these two types of property rights also had implications on the freightage of ships. The merchants who possessed rights to the ship’s use were able to rent it out to a third party. However, those who owned just the ship/object and not its use, were only entitled to dispose of the ship as an object, but could not lease out the ship’s use to a third party. Fretador and armador are two other problematic terms (see Table 6). Their literal translation into English is freighter and skipper, respectively. While the translation of the former offers no problems, the latter is extremely complex. An armador could be indeed a skipper, but could also be a man in charge of the equipping the ship. Again, the two functions could be held either by an individual, by multiple merchants, or even by the captain himself. These issues, however, cannot be addressed in the context of the Slave Voyages Database because freighters and skippers are altogether absent as categories. Another problem is the overlapping of professional categories and accumulation of multiple functions, as Table 5 clearly illustrates. As an example of Atlantic intercontinental commerce, the slave trade required large investments in insurance, freightage of ships, purchase of cargo, recruitment and payment of crews and commercial agents. Additionally, insurers, merchants and commercial agents needed to possess extensive commercial expertise and an extensive knowledge of supply and consumption markets in Western Africa,

Table 4: Variations on crew leadership: a selection as way of example

First known Name (modern year of Known activity Portuguese Known Areas of Activity (in spelling) activity in the slave trade terminology Africa and Indian Ocean) Voyage ID West Central Africa, St. Câncio, Jose ship's master, Helena, Southeast Africa, Joao 1818 ship's captain mestre, capitão Indian Ocean Islands 1053 ship's captain, second capitão, West Central Africa, St. Carrilho, João lieutenant, ship's segundo-tenente, Helena, Southeast Africa, Rodrigues 1806 commander comandante Indian Ocean Islands 144; 7240 Bight of Biafra, Gulf of Guinea ship's captain, Islands, West Central Africa, Chaves, José de ship's capitão, St. Helena, Southeast Africa, Freitas 1826 commander comandante Indian Ocean Islands 874; 1037; 734 ship's master, ship's mestre, Franco, Joaquim commander, comandante, West Central Africa, Southeast António 1826 ship's captain capitão Africa, Indian Ocean Islands 915; 1229; 3353 Gomes, ship's pilot, West Central Africa, St. Domingos ship's captain, piloto, capitão, Helena, Southeast Africa, António 1799 accountant caixa Indian Ocean Islands 49779; 7691 Source: http://www.slavevoyages.org 22

Table 5: Variations on ships’ ownership: a selection as way of example

First known Know activity Name (modern year of in the slave Portuguese Known Areas of Activity (in spelling) activity trade terminology Africa and Indian Ocean) Voyage ID businessman, ship's owner, negociante, Almeida, António lease holder, proprietário, Bight of Benin, Southeast 47209; 7056; 49780; da Cruz e 1784 freighter senhorio, fretador Africa, Indian Ocean Islands 900054 West Central Africa, St. Helena, Bight of Biafra, Gulf of Almeida, Bernardo merchant, comerciante, Guinea Islands, Southeast Luis de 1817 ship's owner proprietário Africa, Indian Ocean Islands 76; 305 merchant, co- comerciante, co- West Central Africa, St. Alves, António ship's owner, proprietário, Helena, Southeast Africa, Ferreira 1811 ship's captain capitão Indian Ocean Islands 1095; 5007; 915 merchant, comerciante, West Central Africa, St. Caldeira, António ship's owner, proprietário, Helena, Southeast Africa, Jose da Silva 1811 lease holder senhorio Indian Ocean Islands 900086 Sa, Jose Bernardino West Central Africa, St. de (Baron and Helena, Bight of Biafra, Gulf of 2099; 2118; 2131; 2132; Viscount of Vila businessman, negociante, Guinea Islands, Southeast 2136; 2138; 2139; 2207; Nova do Minho) 1825 skipper armador Africa, Indian Ocean Islands 2245; 2310; 3408 businessman, negociante, West Central Africa, St. Silva Porto, Joao skipper, ship's armador, Helena, Southeast Africa, Alves da 1818 owner proprietário Indian Ocean Islands 1996

Table 6: Sale of Slaves by Prins Tom to the MCC ship Prins Willem V , November 1757

Port Date African Trader(s) Total No. of Slaves Malemba 1 November 1757 Prins Tom 17 Malemba 2 November 1757 Prins Tom 10 Malemba 3 November 1757 Prins Tom 2 Malemba 4 November 1757 Prins Tom 2 Malemba 5 November 1757 Prins Tom 3 Malemba 6 November 1757 Prins Tom 6 Malemba 7 November 1757 Prins Tom 5 Malemba 8 November 1757 Prins Tom 21 Malemba 10 November 1757 Prins Tom & Jan Clase 9 Malemba 11 November 1757 Prins Tom 8 Malemba 12 November 1757 Prins Tom 12 Malemba 13 November 1757 Prins Tom & Jan Clase 10 Malemba 16 November 1757 Prins Tom 1 Malemba 21 November 1757 Prins Tom 11 Malemba 22 November 1757 Prins Tom 2 Malemba 25 November 1757 Prins Tom 1 Sources: ZA, MCC, 985. 94 F.R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK the Americas and Europe. This knowledge was necessary in order to build wide trading networks which covered several geographical areas. By including only vessels owners and captains in the Slave Voyages Database , key elements in the study of the slave trade have been lost. Information regarding the ownership of cargo, insurers, credit providers, supercargoes on board the ships and business conducted on shore is all extremely crucial and is at risk of being lost. Without this information, important direct and indirect investors and actors of slave trading have been left out of the picture. Several Portuguese Sephardi merchants based in Amsterdam well-known for their engagement in the Western African commerce and the slave trade (among other areas of investment) during the first half of the seventeenth century, are not included in the database mainly because most of the ships they used were freighted. 23 The case of Diogo Nunes Belmonte is an ideal example. The ship De Engel Michiel , whose voyages are listed in the database, was freighted by Belmonte on 22 May 1613 to transport enslaved Africans from Luanda to the Spanish West Indies and return to Seville loaded with Spanish bullion, gold, silver and other goods. 24 The same applies to the insurers of the slave ships and cargoes. These men were indirect investors in the trade, but they were essential in the operation of the business. In seventeenth-century- Amsterdam, Jan Jansz Smits, Claes Andriaesz, Albert Schuijt, Barent Sweets, Jan de Clerck Pelgrom van Dronckelaer, Anthoni van Diemen, Hans van Soldt, Hans van Geel, Hendrick Voet, Willem Pauw, Van den Bogaert, Wijbrant Warwijck and Salomon Voerknecht were the most important entrepreneurs backing the insurance of commercial voyages to Western Africa and the slave voyages to the Americas. 25 For instance, in 1614, Jan Jansz Smits, in association with Anthoni van Diemen, Pelgrom Van Dronckelaer, Hans van Soldt de Jonge, Hendrick Voet, Albert Schuijt, William Pauw, Van der Bogaert and many others non-Jewish merchants based in Amsterdam insured Diogo Nunes Belmonte, for a ‘cargo of slaves’ on board De Engel Michiel , skippered by Sebastião Ribeiro, as well as the return cargo, which was to be gold, silver and other commodities. The ship was to sail on the route Luanda–West Indies– Seville. 26 Again, their names do not appear in the slave trade database, though the voyage is listed.

REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS 95

The examination of the seventeenth century chartered company’s participation in the slave trade through the lens of the slave trade database might also be misleading. The Dutch West India Company, for instance, appears as owner of various vessels operating in the slave circuits. However, this does not mean that the Company was a key player in the business. Often the ships were freighted by private merchants, and the cargoes were their property or the property of other parties. For example, on 1 August 1657, Henrico Mathias signed a contract with the directors of the West India Company to furnish slaves to Curaçao using the ship Den Coninck Salamon .27 Heerman Abrahamsen, Dirck Pietersz Wittepaert and Andries Sael signed an identical agreement with the West India Company in 1662, for the supply of slaves to Curaçao, by the ship Abrahams Offerande , which was the property of the aforementioned merchants. 28 Other contracts followed, like the one signed between the West India Company and Marcus Broen and associates in 1675 also for the transportation of slaves to Curaçao. 29 The analysis of the data available in the database might lead users less familiar with the primary sources to paint an incomplete portrait of the trade. Some of the merchants that appear in the slave trade database as vessel owners or captains held multiple roles, as mentioned earlier. For instance, Francisco Ferroni, a merchant in Amsterdam, was not only a ship owner. He was the representative of Domingo Grillo and Ambrósio Lomelin, holders of the Spanish asiento (1662–1669) in Amsterdam. In this capacity, Ferroni negotiated the agreements between the asientistas and the West India Company and appears in the notarial contracts referring to slave voyages as a party with interest in the trade. At the same time, in 1664, Ferroni granted power of attorney to Martin Noell to sign a contract with the agents of Grillo and Lomelin in Barbados for the supply of 600-1000 “Black Indians or Moors” to the Spanish West Indies. Martin Noel was a merchant in London and an investor in the Royal Company of the Adventurers of England. 30 Credit providers only indirectly engaged in the entire operation are another important group of investors in the slave trade that is also absent from the Slave Voyages Database. Additionally, non-European traders operating in Africa, the Americas and the Indian Ocean have also been neglected. Despite the 96 F.R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK rich data available in eighteenth century, the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie records regarding multiple trading partnerships with indigenous traders on the Loango Coast are incomplete. All data on indigenous traders has been excluded. The records list over 600 individual African traders trading on the Loango Coast alone. Prominent traders with the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie on the Loango Coast included Prins Tom, Jan Claase, and Tom Arij. 31 A study of six voyages of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie ship Prins Willem V to the Loango Coast mapped transactions between Captain Adriaan Jacobse and numerous African traders. In these records, Prins Tom emerges as the most prolific slave supplier. Between 21 August 1755 and 25 November 1757, Prins Tom engaged in 154 sales. Prins Tom supplied the Prins Willem V with a total of 267 slaves in only two voyages (see Table 6). 32 The compilation of a list of these traders would increase not only our understanding of European/African trade relations on the coast but could also provide more solid information on the origins of the enslaved Africans which embarked upon European ships. However, the use of the voyage as the organizing principle has the unfortunate result of strengthening the Eurocentric bias of the data. This issue leads us to the relevant matter of networks within the slave trade business. Often captains, pilots, commanders, freighters and ships owners performed various tasks and roles related not only with sailing but also to business. Their tasks often included operating as accountants in charge of commercial transactions on board the ships and on the coast, where they would conduct trade with local traders whether they were African, Euro-African or European (see Table 7). 33 Henrico Matias, for instance, had connections in Europe, Western Africa and the American colonies to organize his participation in the slave trade. In Europe, Matias appeared associated with Jacinto Vasques, a merchant in Seville with investments in the slave trade, as well as with Marcelo van der Goes and Philip van Hulten who were merchants in Amsterdam. 34 On the Gold Coast and Curaçao, Henrico Matias maintained regular contact with the representatives of the West India Company during the 1650s and 1660s.35 In Curaçao, Matias and his partners (Guiljelmo Belin le Garde and Philip van Hulten, also merchants in Amsterdam) had Ghijsberto de Rosa, conducting trade on their behalf with some inhabitants of the island REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS 97 and the Company since the early 1660s. 36 Edward Man and Isaac van Beeck, directors of the West India Company Chamber of Amsterdam, were also important contacts for Matias’ business with Curaçao. 37 These important links in the slave trade commercial chain cannot be retrieved from the data assembled in the Slave Voyages Database . The names of accountants, information about supercargoes on board the vessels, names of local merchants operating in Western Africa and the Americas on their own name or as commercial agents of others has not been gathered and made available for study. In addition to all the aforementioned difficulties, scholars examining the business activities of the men engaged with the slave trade also have to overcome many linguistic challenges. Many personal names in the database have language symbols associated with them, in particular the French, Portuguese and Spanish names. However, the names have not been standardized. For example, the name of António Pedroso de Albuquerque, owner of three slave vessels sailing between Brazil and the Congo River, appears written in various ways (see Table 8). These languages symbols also pose other challenges. During the transfer of the data into Microsoft Excel, these symbols are sometimes replaced by special characters making names difficult to decipher, especially for researchers who are not native speakers (see Table 8). Secondly, the same personal name can appear abbreviated or translated depending on the primary sources that were used to collect the data on the first place. Thirdly, identifying personal names is also made difficult by the existence of multiple spellings used for each name. This is a consistent problem within the categories of ships owners and ship captains regardless of the language used (see Table 8). These variations in form also make name identification unnecessarily complex. A fourth problem is the use of expressions such as Son, Father, Junior and Senior. They appear without specifying individual names making the recognition of each man more complicated. Fifth and finally, multiple spellings and the split of composite surnames, especially common in Portuguese, Spanish and French, make name searches even harder. As a solution to the difficulties pointed above, we suggest a single standard spelling for each person, using Modern Language and avoiding language symbols and special characters (see Table 8), as presented in our previous tables. 98 F.R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK

Despite the problems of categorization and language highlighted earlier, business historians interested in analyzing the engagement of private merchants in the slave trade as well as in examining their modus operandi in the business can benefit from searching and using the information available on the Slave Voyages website. By shifting the attention from the involvement of individual states to private entrepreneurship, and by focusing on private involvement in the trade within the framework of state policies and regulations, a business history will add a new dimension to the study of the transatlantic slave trade. In the last two decades, several scholars have examined in detail merchant groups operating in the Atlantic, their economic activities and commercial and their financial networks. In addition, the economic strategies of private businessmen operating in the Atlantic either to cope with competition or promote cooperation with other mercantile groups have also been analyzed. 38 By drawing on this scholarship and with the aid of the Slave Voyages Database , researchers studying private entrepreneurship in the transatlantic slave trade are poised to make an important contribution to our understanding of the mercantile dimensions of this dreadful trade and its relationship with other commercial activities in Western Africa, the Atlantic and in other geo-economic regions.

III: Conclusions and Avenues for New Research

This paper has explored how the categories of the Slave Voyages Database could be refined to increase our understanding of both the geographical definition of the West Central African Coast and the contributions of the individuals involved. First we have argued for the re-categorization of the West Central Africa into two distinct regions: the Loango and Angola Coasts. Redefining these categories based on the spheres of influence and trade dominated by African polities allows us to see distinct patterns of European shipping and influence in the two regions. Secondly we highlighted the potential usefulness of the database in tracing the networks of individuals involved in the slave trade to the Americas which spanned both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. We caution the user of the database to acknowledge the limitations of this data which is organized around English categories of captaincy and ownership.

Table 7: Agents for the slave trade: a selection as way of example

First known Known activity Name (modern year of in the slave Portuguese Known Areas of Activity (in Voyage spelling) activity trade terminology Africa and Indian Ocean) ID Fontes, José ship's master, West Central Africa, St. Helena, Joaquim de ship's captain, mestre, capitão, Southeast Africa, Indian Ocean Sousa 1817 supercargo sobrecarga Islands 3352 ship's captain, West Central Africa, St. Helena, Lopes, Francisco accountant, capitão, caixa, Southeast Africa, Indian Ocean da Silva 1813 ship's owner proprietário Islands 397 Moreira, José ship's captain, West Central Africa, St. Helena, 499; Lopes da Costa ship's master, capitão, mestre, Southeast Africa, Indian Ocean 1043; (Jr) 1823 supercargo sobrecarga Islands 47983 ship's captain, West Central Africa, St. Helena, 46468; Sousa, Francisco ship's master, capitão, mestre, Southeast Africa, Indian Ocean 7239; José de 1817 accountant caixa Islands 49039 ship's captain, Bight of Benin, West Central Silva, Manuel accountant, capitão, caixa, Africa, St. Helena, Southeast 395; Francisco 1814 ship's owner proprietário Africa, Indian Ocean Islands 515; 739 Source: http://www.slavevoyages.org 39

100 F.R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK

Table 8: Variations on spelling and other language issues: a selection as way of example

Voyage Year of Personal name Major region of slave ID Arrival (owner or captain) purchase Albuquerque, West Central Africa and 1028 1829 Antonio Pedroso de St. Helena Albuquerque, West Central Africa and 1158 1830 Antônio Pedroso de St. Helena Albuquerque, West Central Africa and 1161 1830 António Pedroso de St. Helena 2581 1837 Zulueta Sierra Leone West Central Africa and 4285 1858 Zulueta, Don Julian St. Helena 4799 1859 Zulueta, J 2224 1843 Zulueta, Juan Bight of Benin West Central Africa and 2012 1840 Zulueta, Julián St. Helena 2228 1843 Zulueta, Julian Bight of Benin Santos, Félix West Central Africa and 22 1817 José dos St. Helena Santos, Felix Jose West Central Africa and 414 1824 dos St. Helena Abrahamsen, West Central Africa and 98803 1661 Heerman St. Helena West Central Africa and 44141 1669 Abrahamsz, Hereman St. Helena West Central Africa and 11733 1670 Abrams, Heerman St. Helena Bight of Biafra and Gulf 11806 1658 Mathias, Henrico of Guinea islands Senegambia and offshore 44183 1672 Mathias, Henrique* Atlantic West Central Africa and 44187 1673 Mathijs, Henrique St. Helena West Central Africa and 98808 1663 Matias, Henrique* St. Helena Sources: http://www.slavevoyages.org

REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS 101

The absence of significant detail in the merchant data of the Slave Voyages Database presents an opportunity for the creation of a new resource. This is not to suggest that the compilers of Slave Voyages Database got it wrong, but rather that their project was so conclusive that the debate is evolving beyond the number of enslaved Africans which crossed the Atlantic on European ships. If we were to undertake such a challenge, the Slave Voyages Database provides a project template upon which slavery researchers can both expand and improve. First, by clearly defining geographical regions at the onset of the project we could avoid conflicting geographical organizations between researchers. This would mean taking into consideration local and foreign geographical, political, and economic factors and clearly presenting this information with the data. Second, we would attempt to avoid a linguistic bias in the description of job titles, including categories in English and the original language of primary sources. Fields to categorize other economic activities not directly related to the slave trade as well as political and military roles of each merchant should also be incorporated in this type of dataset. By moving from the voyage to the individual as the organizing model, we would open the opportunity to gather biographical and professional information for each merchant. It would also allow us to include non-European traders and commercial partners where the documents allow. Moreover, it would be possible to examine the transatlantic slave trade as part of a wider economic system encompassing the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. This would put the study of this trade in a global perspective and show that it did not always have a major role or an isolated role in the economic growth/decay of certain areas as emphasized by existing historiography. Therefore, we believe that the data should not be limited to slave trading but rather that it should eventually be extended to all economic exchanges (at least to those taking place in the Atlantic World). We argue in favor of this solution because recent scholarship by us and others has shown that slave merchants invested in multiple businesses, and often financed their slave trade operations through investments in other economic activities which were less risky and more profitable. As for the geographical borders of this potential merchant dataset, the fluidity of merchants, investors, insurers, and sailors 102 F.R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK between markets is a clear obstacle. However, this can be overcome by creating multiple geographical fields to trace each merchant’s connections to the commercial chain of the early modern inter- continental trade. This opens the opportunity to reconstruct financial and commercial networks and to analyze commercial interactions on both macro and micro scales. A potential database on merchants and their participation in the slave trade would obviously be connected to the Slave Voyages Database available online so that researchers may link biographical and professional information to actual slave voyages. This would build upon the strengths of the current database and allow scholars to optimize usage of both resources. This is only one of the many new possible directions of inquiry fueled by the innovations made possible through the Slave Voyages Database . The implication and importance of the Slave Voyages Database and its place in the historical record is something we are only beginning to comprehend. It will continue to inspire new ideas and debate and in doing so will reshape the way we understand the interconnectivity of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific worlds.

1 Filipa Ribeiro da Silva is a post-doctoral fellow at the International Institute of Social History of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences, and Stacey Sommerdyk is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand. The authors would like to acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the European Union 7th Framework and the Project Slavery Trade, Slavery, Abolitions in European Histories and Identities (EURESCL) for their support of the research projects which form the basis of this article. 2 See Johannes Menne Postma, The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600- 1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 60-61; Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental and African Slave Trades (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 10. 3 Alecuba, Ambona, Ambriz, Benguela, Boary, Bomara, Cabinda, Cape Mole, Coanza River, Congo North, Congo River, Rio Zaire, Grenada Point, Kilongo, Loango, Malembo, Mayumba, Mpinda, Nova Redonda, Penido, Quicombo, Salinas, Luanda, and Soyo. 4 Roquinaldo Ferreira, “The Suppression of the Slave trade and Slave Departures from Angola, 1830-1860,” in David Eltis and David Richardson, eds., Extending the Frontiers: Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave Trade Database. (New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 2008), 313-34. 5 John K. Thornton, Warfare in Atlantic Africa 1500-1800 (New York: Routledge, 2003), 14. 6 Thornton, Warfare in Africa , 15. REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS 103

7 Thornton, Warfare in Africa , 136-37. 8 Thornton, Warfare in Africa , 138-39. 9 Jan Vansina, Kingdoms of the Savannah (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966), 18. 10 Postma, Dutch Atlantic Slave Trade , 56-57. 11 Postma, Dutch Atlantic Slave Trade , 60-61. 12 Phyllis M. Martin, The External Trade of the Loango Coast 1576-1870: The Effects of Changing Commercial Relations on the Vili Kingdom of Loango (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), 8-10. 13 Postma, Dutch Atlantic Slave Trade , 60-61. 14 Martin, External Trade of the Loango Coast , 116-30. 15 See Codes Section of The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database on CD- ROM, 1999. 16 Both Ferreira and Candido point to the distinct nature of the Benguela trade while stopping short of suggesting this separation. See: Roquinaldo Ferreira, “The Suppression of the Slave trade,” 31; and Mariana Candido, “Merchants and the Business of the Slave Trade at Benguela, 1750-1850,” African Economic History 35 (2007), 1-2. 17 Undefined. 2009. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Voyages. http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/estimates.faces. (accessed Query - Principal place of slave purchase: West Central Africa and St. Helena. 18 It is possible that records of Portuguese slave trade on the Loango Coast remain to be discovered. This could further change our understanding of trade volume for West Central Africa. 19 Undefined. 2009. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Voyages. http://www.slavevoyages.org. 20 These figures are calculated based on the figures in Table 3. 21 Throughout the early modern period, in particular during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, businessmen’s participation in the slave trade as well as in other commercial branches shows low levels of specialization. As a consequence, merchants appear involved in various trades and operating in multiple regions simultaneously. The merchants engaged in the West Central African slave trade were also active in other regions of western Africa, as evidence presented in the following tables will show. For further information on the low levels of specialization of businessmen in the Atlantic trade and in the commerce with western Africa, see, for instance: Cátia Antunes, Globalisation in the Early Modern Period: The Economic Relationship between Amsterdam and Lisbon, 1640-1705 (Amsterdam: Aksant, 2004), chap. 3, 4, 5. Antunes, “Atlantic entrepreneurship: Cross- cultural business networks, 1580-1776,” Paper presented at the workshop, Transitions to Modernity , Yale University, Nov. 2007. Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, Dutch and Portuguese in Western Africa: Empires, Merchants and the Atlantic System, 1580-1674 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), chap. 5, 6. 22 Changes made by authors on Excel File as explained in the text. Information on known activity in the slave trade gathered from various 104 F.R. DA SILVA AND S. SOMMERDYK

primary sources and secondary literature, including José Capela, Dicionário de Negreiros em Mocambique: 1750-1897 (Porto: Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade do Porto, 2007). The information presented here is part of a larger database on businessmen involved in the trans-Atlantic and the Indian Ocean Slave Trades recently made available on the website of the Project Slave Trade, Slavery and Abolition in European Histories and Identities (EURESCL) funded by the European Union 7th Framework Programme: http://www.eurescl.eu/ 23 Among there were Diogo Nunes Belmonte, Miguel de Pas, Duarte and David de Palacios as well as Manuel Dias Henriques. For further details on the participation of these merchants in the Western African trade and the slave trade, in particular, see: Ribeiro da Silva, Dutch and Portuguese in Western Africa , chap. 6. Cátia Antunes and Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, “ The African Trade and Slave Trade in the business portfolio of Amsterdam’s businessmen, 1580s-1670s, ” Tijdschrif voor Sociale en Economiche Geschiedenis (forthcoming). 24 Stadsarchief van Amsterdam (former Gemeente Archief van Amsterdam, hereafter GAA), Notarieel Archief (hereafter NA) 258/81v: 1613-03-19; NA 254/188-188v: 1614-05-22. 25 Ribeiro da Silva, Dutch and Portuguese in Western Africa , chap. 6. 26 GAA, NA 254/188-188v: 1614-05-22. 27 GAA, NA 2118/...: 1657-08-01. 28 GAA, NA 1996A/113: 1663-04-28. 29 GAA, NA 322/675-699: 1675-04-27; NA 3221/695: 1675-04-27 30 GAA, NA 2231/82-89: 1669-09-09. For further details on the Grillo and Lomelin asiento , see: Marisa Vega Franco, El trafico de esclavos con America; asientos de Grillo Y Loemlín, 1663-1674 (Seville: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1984), 194-202; Enriqueta Vila Vilar, “La sublevación de Portugal y la trata de negros,” Ibero-Americkanisches Archiv 2 (1976), 171-92; Johannes M. Postma, The Dutch in the Atlantic slave trade. 1600-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 33-38 and Appendix 3, 349-53. 31 Zeeuwsarchief (hereafter ZA), The archief van de Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie (hereafter MCC), 216, 219, 335, 400, 410, 456, 488, 517, 524, 528, 533, 575, 677, 795, 825, 932, 938, 980, 985, 990, 1009, 1013, 1019, 1106, 1224, 1229, 1286, 1289 & 1308. 32 ZA, MCC 980 & 985. For a list of the African traders who engaged in trade with the Prins Willem V see: Stacey Sommerdyk, “Trans-Cultural Exchange at Malemba Bay: The Voyages of the Fregatschip Prins Willem V, 1755 to 1771,” in Circuits of Exchange: Slaves, Capital and Networks in Atlantic Commerce (16 th -19 th centuries) , edited by Filipa Ribeiro da Silva and David Richardson (forthcoming). 33 For further details on slave trade networks, see: Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, “Networking Across Empires: Dutch, Sephardim and Portuguese Business and Commercial Webs for the Atlantic Slave Trade (1580-1674),” The Americas 68, 1 (Jul. 2011), 7–32. 34 GAA, NA 2117/161: 1656-11-23; NA 2715/207: 1660-04-10. REEXAMINING THE GEOGRAPHY AND MERCHANTS 105

35 GAA, NA 2717/65: 1661-01-19. 36 GAA, NA 2211/140-142: 1661-07-26. 37 GAA, NA 2118/137: 1657-08-01. 38 See, for example: Peter A. Coclanis, ed., The Atlantic Economy during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century: Organization, Operation Practice and Personnel (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1999); John J. McCusker and Kenneth Morgan, eds., The Early Modern Atlantic Economy: Essays on Transatlantic Enterprise (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); Diogo Ramada Curto and Anthony Molho, eds., Commercial Networks in the Early Modern World (Firenze: European University Institute, 2002). 39 Changes made by authors on Excel File as explained in the text. Information on the activities in the slave trade gathered from multiple primary sources and secondary literature, including José Capela, Dicionário de Negreiros em Mocambique: 1750-1897 (Porto: Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade do Porto, 2007). The information presented here is part of a larger database on businessmen involved in the trans-Atlantic and the Indian Ocean Slave Trades recently made available on the website of the Project Slave Trade, Slavery and Abolition in European Histories and Identities (EURESCL) funded by the European Union 7th Framework Programme: http://www.eurescl.eu/