• King Nzinga Mbemba (christened Dom Affonso I) (r. 1509–1543) ruled over the Kongo Empire, which included large parts of modern Angola, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cabinda. Portuguese priests brought Christianity in 1491, and the entire royal family converted to Christianity. Slavery had existed before the Portuguese arrived, and Affonso had profited from it, but by the 1520s the transatlantic trade threatened the kingdom’s survival. Here Affonso begs the Portuguese king, João VI, to stop the trade. William Bosman, who arrived in West Africa in 1688, was employed by the Dutch East India Company at Elmina Castle (in modern Elmina, Ghana). In letters to his uncle in Holland, Bosman offered a detailed, first-person account of the African slave trade around the port city of Fida (modern Ouidah in Benin).

Nzinga Mbemba (Affonso I), Letter to the King of Portugal

“July 6, 1526

To Dom João, King our Brother

Sir, Your Highness should know how our Kingdom is being lost . . . caused by the excessive freedom given by your factors and officials to the men and merchants who are allowed to come to this Kingdom to set up shops with goods and many things which have been prohibited by us, and which they spread throughout our Kingdoms and Domains in such an abundance that many of our vassals, whom we had in obedience, do not comply because they have the things in greater abundance than we ourselves; and it was with these things that we had them content and subjected under our vassalage and jurisdiction, so it is doing a great harm not only to the service of God, but the security and peace of our Kingdoms . . . as well.

And we cannot reckon how great the damage is, since the mentioned merchants are taking every day our natives, sons of the land and the sons of our noblemen and vassals and our relatives . . . ; they grab them and get them to be sold; and . . . our country is being completely depopulated. . . . We beg of Your Highness to help and assist us in this matter, commanding your factors that they should not send here either merchants or wares, because it is our will that in these Kingdoms there should not be any trade of slaves nor outlet for them. . . . Otherwise we cannot remedy such an obvious damage. Pray Our Lord in His mercy to have Your Highness under His guard. . . . I kiss your hands many times.

At the town of Congo,

The King, Dom Affonso”

William Bosman, A Description of the Coast of Guinea

“The first business of one of our Factors when he comes to Fida, is to satisfie the Customs of the King . . . , about 100 Pounds in Guinea value. . . . After which we have free License to Trade. . . .

Before we can deal with any Person, we are obliged to buy the King’s whole stock of Slaves at a set price; which is commonly one third or one fourth higher than ordinary: After which we [may] deal with all his Subjects. . . . But if there happen to be no stock of Slaves, the Factor must [trust] the Inhabitants with Goods to the value of one or two hundred Slaves; which Commodities they send into the In-land Country, in order to buy with them Slaves at all Markets, and that sometimes two hundred Miles deep in the Country. . . . Most of the Slaves that are offered to us are Prisoners of War, which are sold by the Victors as their Booty.

When these Slaves come to Fida, they are put in Prison . . . ; where, by our Chirurgeons [surgeons], . . . they are thoroughly examined. . . . Those which are approved as good are set on one side; and the lame or faulty are set by as Invalides. . . . These are such as are above five and thirty Years old, or are maimed in the Arms, Legs, Hands or Feet, have lost a Tooth, are grey-haired, or have Films over their Eyes; [or] are affected with any Venereal Distemper, or with several other Diseases.

The Invalides . . . being thrown out, . . . the remainder are numbered, and it is entered who delivered them. In the meanwhile, a burning Iron, with the Arms or Name of the Companies, lies in the Fire; with which ours are marked on the Breast . . . that we may distinguish them from the Slaves of the English, French, or others (which are also marked with their Mark). . . .

We are seldom long detained in the buying . . . , because their price is established, the Women being one fourth or fifth part cheaper than the Men. . . . When we have agreed with the Owners of the Slaves, they are returned to their Prison; where . . . they are kept at our charge. . . . To save Charges, we send them on Board our Ships with the first Opportunity; . . . they come Aboard stark-naked as well Women as Men: In which condition they are obliged to continue, if the Master of the Ship is not so Charitable (which he commonly is) as to bestow something on them to cover their Nakedness.”

Sources: Basil Davidson, ed. The African Past: Chronicles from Antiquity to Modern Times (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1964), pp. 191–192; Copyright © 1964 by Basil Davidson. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.; William Bosman, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, Divided into the Gold, the Slave, and the Ivory Coasts (London: J. Knapton, 1705), pp. 363–365.

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