Description

SOCIEDADE ANTI-ESCLAVAGISTA PORTUGUEZA.

[Dossier-Archive seemingly assembled in Lisbon, but with diverse elements, some printed in Portuguese Africa], 1910 – 1911.

 

Slavery was supposed to have been abolished in West Africa in the 1870s… however, it continued well into the 20th century on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe.

São Tomé (854 sq. km) and Príncipe (142 sq. km) are islands located by the Equator, situated in the Gulf of Guinea that, despite their diminutive nature, for centuries played an outsized role in world history. The islands were strategically located along key shipping routes, while due to their lush climate and astoundingly fertile volcanic soil could reliably yield bumper cash crops.

The islands were historically uninhabited and the Portuguese successfully first colonized São Tomé in 1493, and Príncipe in 1500. The Portuguese quickly developed a slave plantation economy, such that during most of the 16th century São Tomé and Príncipe was the largest source of sugar for Europe. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the sugar economy gradually declined, and the focus of the islands switched to serving as one of the key entrepôts of the Transatlantic slave trade.

The collapse of the sugar market in the 1820s caused São Tomé and Príncipe’s planters to abandon the crop, and to gradually switch to the production of cacao, using seeds brought from Brazil. This decision ushed in a renaissance for the islands’ agriculture, as cacao thrived there, as São Tomé and Príncipe reliably produced outrageously bountiful yields of the highest imaginable quality. Coffee production was also significant.

The planters of São Tomé and Príncipe developed the roças system (roça being the term for an agrarian estate), whereby the arable territory of the islands was divided into a small number of very large estates owned by Portuguese grandees. The islands’ small permanent population, which largely consisted of Mestiços and “libertos” (free blacks), had little experience, let alone interest, in agrarian field work. Thus, the plantation owners tended to import their labour from continental Africa, mostly from Angola. Until 1875, they could legally (or semi-legally) acquire workers as slaves, but from the time onwards they had to follow a technically different method to acquire manpower that, in practice, ended up being the same as the old system.

The 1880s saw a massive rise in demand for cacao in Europe and the United States, as the growing middle class ensured that chocolate had become a popular mass-consumer phenomenon, and not just a rare treat for the wealthy. Cocoa production in São Tomé and Príncipe boomed, making the island’s planters obscenely wealthy and politically powerful, not just on the islands, but in metropolitan Portugal. As such, for many years they were permitted to do pretty much whatever they pleased, including reintroducing slavery on São Tomé and Príncipe.

The São Tomé and Príncipe plantation owners, via agents, started to “recruit” labourers, mostly in the interior of Angola. While these workers were in theory promised wages and fixed term contracts for labouring in the ‘cocoa islands’, most were coerced or tricked into “signing up” and were force marched to the coast of Angola, whereupon many died along the way. This process was exactly like the traditional, horrific Angolan slavery caravans. Those who survived were then transported to São Tomé and Príncipe, whereupon at the roças where they were forced to work 6½ days a week, in horrific conditions.

Every year, a large percentage of the workers died of either tropical diseases, abuse or malnutrition. The roças were often self-contained, with their own dormitories, infirmaries, etc., such that there was no reason for the workers to ever leave the estates, and indeed they were usually not permitted to do so for any reason (their movements were always monitored by armed guards). Often the workers were not paid, or at least not compensated in full, while their supposed fixed-term contracts were often ‘rolled over’ (renewed), regardless of whether the worker consented or not. As such, the system was not just like slavery, it was slavery.

In 1903, the Portuguese government even codified this labour system with a new law. This legislation mandated that the planters of São Tomé and Príncipe could recruit workers from continental Portuguese Africa (mainly Angola, but also Mozambique) for five-year renewable contracts. They promised to pay them a monthly wage of 2,500 reis (equivalent to about U.S. $2.50) for men and 1,800 reis for women, requiring nine-hour workdays, save “those sanctified by religion”. Those who renewed their contract were entitled to a 10% pay raise. A new centralized labour recruitment agency, the Junta Central de Trabalho e Emigração para a Província de S.Thomé, led by a board composed of planters and government officials, was to ensure the fair treatment of the workers, while the labourers themselves could complain of mistreatment to a “Curador” (ombudsman). The workers who participated in this system were called serviçaes (singular: serviçal), such that the arrangement came to be known as the ‘Serviçaes System’.

Curiously, the 1903 Serviçaes law was initially widely considered to be a quite liberal, enlightened even, as it seemingly guaranteed labourers a certain level of compensation and the right to redress abuses. However, the roça owners generally sought evade any protections for workers, while the authorities turned a blind eye. The Junta Central de Trabalho allowed the Angolan slave caravans to continue and the curadors were often not in a ‘listening mood’. As such, slavery continued as it did before. Indicative of the brutal nature of the serviçaes system, it became well-known that literally nobody (not even a single person) ever returned to Angola from having worked on the roças of São Tomé and Príncipe!

The São Tomé and Príncipe cocoa industry exploded, such that from 1890 to 1910 the annual revenue generated grew from £67,000 to £1,000,000 (then an astounding sum!). By 1908, the islands were the largest producer cacao in the world, yet from 1895 to 1909 the number of serviçaes working on the islands had grown from only 16,000 to 35,535. As such, by the end of this period, many roças received 15-times the revenue per serviçal as they did at the beginning. Yet, the workers never got raises commensurate with these profits, while many never received any wages whatsoever. Moreover, the mortality rate on the roças was horrendous, that while often varying between 4% and 22% per annum, was over 30% on some properties. Beatings and intentional starvation were also the norm in many roças. As such, the cocoa estates were death-mills, exactly like the slave-sugar plantations of old.

Most of the cacao produced in São Tomé and Príncipe was sold to the English chocolate giants of Cadbury’s, Rowntree and Fry’s, venerable old firms that were ironically all run by Quaker families (notably, the Quakers were ardently against slavery as a tenet of their faith, and for generations were drivers of the global Abolitionist movement). While there were alternative sources for cocoa (ex. Gold Coast), the Quaker chocolatiers preferred São Tomé and Príncipe cocoa, as the crops tended to be of top quality, and were reliably produced every season, while the roça-owners were very cooperative, long-term suppliers who always ensured that their clients were 100% satisfied.

The São Tomé and Príncipe planters seemed to have the upper hand in Lisbon, as they had close ties to the ailing conservative royalist regime, which furthermore did not want to harm one of the few industries that was faring well in Portugal’s otherwise moribund imperial economy.

However, the planters’ lobby had powerful enemies, both foreign and domestic, who were determined to expose and shame those involved in maintaining slavery in the roças of São Tomé and Príncipe. The resulting ‘Slave-Grown Cocoa Controversy’ made headlines the world over in the run up to World War I.

The organized opposition to slavery in São Tomé and Príncipe originated in England, spearheaded by liberal journalists, politicians and activists, often associated with the Aborigines’ Protection Society (APS, founded in 1837; this venerable old Abolitionist organization was, in 1909, merged with the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society to form the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society, today’s Anti-Slavery International). These figures placed burning heat upon Cadbury’s, Fry’s and Rowntree’s for buying slave grown cocoa, causing all three firms to announce that they would boycott all purchases from in São Tomé and Príncipe.

Notably, in 1908, The Standard newspaper accused Cadbury’s of foot-dragging, as well as hoarding cacao from São Tomé and Príncipe, while conducting innumerable “investigations” and meetings on the subject with the islands’ plantocracy, even though by that point their involvement in slavery was long obvious. This was an especially horrible accusation to be levelled against Quakers. While Cadbury’s would subsequently win a libel against The Standard, the ‘scandal’ permanently damaged its brand image.

The Quaker trio’s boycott of São Tomé and Príncipe’s cocoa surprised and alarmed the plantocracy, while the Portuguese crown agreed to temporarily pause the recruitment of serviçaes until a new, more humane system could be implemented. Having said that, the planters continued to deny the self-evident fact that they were enslaving and mistreating the migrant labourers still in their custody.

However, it soon became clear that the pause in the serviçaes system was merely cosmetic, with ‘black market’ recruiting (or capturing) of workers still occurring in Angola, as well as in Mozambique.

Despite Portugal’s lamentable record on slavery, the country had a long and estimable Abolitionist movement, as its four-time Prime Minister Bernardo de Sá Nogueira de Figueiredo, the 1st Marquis de Sá da Bandeira (1795 – 1876), battled for 40 years to secure the abolition of slavery throughout the Portuguese Empire. Many prominent figures, often associated with the Freemasons or the urban intelligentsia of Lisbon and Porto were

adamantly against slavery. Their ranks were joined by a growing number of military men and civil servants, some even from conservative backgrounds, who while serving in Africa had become disgusted upon eye-witnessing the horrific mistreatment of Africans. Yet for many years, their efforts to convince the powers in Lisbon to implement meaningful reforms were usually outmatched by the awesome influence of the planter’s lobby.

While slavery throughout the Portuguese Empire was technically phased out between 1869 and 1879, as shown, the planters of the cocoa islands had found a way to revive slavery, just under another name.

The catalyst for change was the October 5, 1910 Revolution, that topped the Portuguese monarchy, in favour of a more liberal republican regime. It allowed the Portuguese abolitionist movement, and their English allies, to gradually gain the upper hand in the battle over slavery in São Tomé and Príncipe.

On October 21, 1910, just over two weeks after the republican revolution, several of the most prominent Portuguese abolitionists formed the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza (The Portuguese Anti-Slavery Society), inspired by the model of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society. This organization included many ‘A-List’ Portuguese luminaries, including Magalhães Lima, the Grand Master of the Portuguese Freemasons (the Sociedade’s founding president); Alfredo Henrique da Silva, a professor and Protestant missionary; Jaime Leote do Rego, the former Governor of São Tomé and Príncipe; Francisco Marques Ribeiro, the Mayor of Luanda; José Antonio Simões Raposo, Secretary of the Portuguese Interior Ministry; and General José Norton de Matos (1877 – 1955), then a senior military commander and colonial expert who would subsequently serve as the Governor-General of Angola (1912-5 and 1921-3) and War Minister (1915-7), and in later life would be the primary liberal opposition figure to the Estado Novo dictatorship.

With the active assistance of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society, the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza launched a ferocious media campaign in Lisbon’s liberal and moderate daily newspapers, excoriating the planter’s lobby and the government for perpetrating and covering up the crimes of slavery and slave trading in São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola and Mozambique. It seemed that almost every day through 1910 and 1911 the matter was prominently featured in the media, in parliament and as the topic of conversation in cafes in Lisbon and Porto. Meanwhile, the planter lobby, led by Francisco Mantero, asserted that there was no slavery in São Tomé and Príncipe and that any claims otherwise were part of a devious plot to lower cocoa prices. However, unlike in royalist times, the planters’ cause was out of fashion and Mantero’s efforts only served to delay the inevitable.

In 1911, largely due to the efforts of the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza, the Portuguese government began to implement serious reforms to the migrant labour system in São Tomé and Príncipe, compelling the planters to return labourers to their homelands once their five-year contracts were fulfilled, as well as giving them better pay and treatment while on the roças.

Of course, these changes were not enacted overnight, although great leap forwards occurred when two prominent Sociedad members took the helms of relevant colonies. Jaime

Leote do Rego served his second frenetic stint as the Governor of São Tomé and Príncipe (in office, June 14 to November 24, 1911), whereupon he enacted a torrent of measures to combat slavery and to improve the conditions of black workers. In 1912, José Norton de Matos became the Governor-General of Angola, whereupon he effectively cracked down on the neo-slave caravans and the recruitment of Angolans to toil in São Tomé and Príncipe.

By 1913, thousands of migrant workers were being returned from São Tomé and Príncipe to the home colonies. By 1915, Abolitionist missionary observers were adamant that slavery in the cocoa islands was over, as the roças were now staffed by (albeit poorly paid) voluntary labourers.

While the exact details remain elusive, the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza seems to have been wound down in 1914, its existence seen as no longer necessary – a victim of its own success.

THE MEMORY BOOK / ARCHIVE IN FOCUS

This fascinating and significant archive comes in the form of a ‘memory book’ clearly assembled by a well-placed member of the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza. It contains examples of unique or exceedingly rare ephemera concerning its operations, including its inaugural statements, letterhead and administrative forms, meeting invitations, press releases, letters and memoranda, major project prospectuses and opinion papers, rare pamphlets, examples of African newspapers, as well as dozens of newspaper clippings that chart the Sociedade’s ambitious PR/media campaign that succeeded in bringing an end to slavery in São Tomé and Príncipe.

CONTENTS:

[p. 1]: Samples of blank letterhead of the ‘Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza’ (1 f. of
letter paper and 3 envelopes.

[p. 2]: [FIRST EDITION OF THE INAUGURAL/FOUNDING STATEMENT OF THE SOCIEDADE], Lisbon, October 21, 1910.
1 f. quarto, on ‘Sociedade’ letterhead (pasted down).
The core of the text reads:
Portugal, now awakened to life, needs to integrate itself into all the major movements that concern modern societies and stir great peoples. Of these movements, one of the most generous, certainly, is the one that aims to awaken universal consciousness against the stain on civilization, the sale of man by man, slavery.
The Portuguese soul, made entirely of love and freedom, rejects the mere idea of dense savagery. Despite this, Portugal is considered by the world to be a nation of slaves. Some of our colonies are considered centres of slavery.
One of two things: either this accusation is true and then it is urgent that we all unite and, frankly, acknowledging the evil, help the Government to put an end, for the sake of the nation’s decorum, to even the most insignificant remnants of this barbarity. If this concept is false, and then we must communicate with anti-slavery societies aboard and loyally lead them to acknowledge the deception.

For this, which is already no small feat, and to accompany the worldwide movement to protect the so-called inferior races, it was extremely urgent to establish the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza, uniting all those who may be interested in this momentous issue. People of both sexes may be members of the Society.
Support should be sent to the provisional headquarters, Sociedade de Geografia, Lisbon, by filling out the enclosed form.
Dated in Lisbon, October 21, 1910, signed by the Organizing Commissioners

[p. 3]: 2 examples of the inaugural ‘Sociedade’ membership forms (pasted down, recto and verso), each 11 x 14 cm on green card.

[p. 4]: [SECOND EDITION OF THE INAUGURAL/FOUNDING STATEMENT OF THE SOCIEDADE], Lisbon, October 21, 1910.
1 f. quarto, on ‘Sociedade’ letterhead (pasted down).
The text largely repeats that of the previous inaugural statement, save that it elaborates on some details, noting the optional members’ fee of 1$200 Reis. It also gives the names and titles of the 12 Organizing Commissioners of the Sociedade: Alvaro Affonso (Professor), Alvaro Corte Real (Commercial Trader in Angola), Antonio Maria da Silva (Engineer and Director General of the Portuguese Statistics Bureau), Antonio Simões Raposo (Judge in Angola), Augusto Soares (Director of the Economista Portuguez magazine), Carlos Braga (Commercial Trader in Luanda), Francisco Marques Ribeiro (Mayor of Luanda), José Antonio Simões Raposo (Secretary of the Portuguese Interior Ministry), José de Macedo (Professor and Publicist), José de Magalhães (Professor of the School of Tropical Medicine, Lisbon), Sebastião Magalhães Lima (Grand Master of the Portuguese Freemasons), and Alfredo Henrique da Silva (Professor).

[p. 5]: Newspaper clipping (pasted down) of the article ‘Serviçais de S. Tomé’ by Alfredo Henrique da Silva, in the paper Mundo, 25/1/1910.

[p. 6]: [THIRD EDITION OF THE INAUGURAL/FOUNDING STATEMENT OF THE SOCIEDADE, Lisbon, October 21, 1910].
1 f. quarto, on ‘Sociedade’ letterhead (pasted down).
The text largely repeats that of the previous inaugural statements, but now designates the table officers of the Organizing Commission and increasing its membership to 17 (from 12). The Sociedade’s President was Magalhães Lima; the 2 Secretaries were Alfredo Henrique da Silva and José de Macedo; the Treasurer was Francisco Marques Ribeiro. All the previously mentioned members of the commission remained, while its new members included ‘big names’, such as Jayme de Moraes (Secretary of the Government of Angola), Jaime Leote do Rego (the former and future Governor of São Tomé and Príncipe), and Matilde Agrela d’Oliveira (a professor and the only female member of the commission).

[p. 7]: 2 newspaper clippings (pasted down), with the following articles: 1) ‘Conselho de ministros’, Diario de Noticias, 19/10/1910; 2) ‘Slaves of Portugal…Message to Mr. W. Cadbury…’, Daily News, 13/10/1910.

[p. 8]: 2 newspaper clippings (pasted down), with the following articles: 1) ‘Labour conditions in Angola’, Economista Portugues, 9/11/1910; 2) ‘O repartriamento obrigatorio vai ser um facto…’, Economista Portugues, 9/11/1910.

[p. 9]: [2 Items (pasted down)]: 1) newspaper clipping with article: ‘Echos’, Economista Portugues, 9/11/1910; 2) [Dinner Invitation to Members of the London Anti-Slavery Society]: printed card on ‘Sociedade’ letterhead (17.5 x 12.5 cm), reading:
‘Invitation’ – On behalf of the the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza’ I have the honour of inviting your excellency to the dinner offered to the delegation of the London Anti-Slavery Society, and which will take place on Wednesday, the 15th of the month at XX in the evening, at Avenida Palace. Dated Lisbon, November 14, 1910, signed Alfredo da Silva, Secretary.

[p.10]: [PRESS RELEASE: Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza announcing the Arrival of the Delegation of the London Anti-Slavery Society in Lisbon, November 14, 1910].
“Serviçaes de S. Tomé”.
1 f. quarto, indigo copy of typescript, on ‘Sociedade’ letterhead (pasted down).
Letter informing the press of the imminent arrival of the delegation of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society in Lisbon, via the Sud-Express train. The Delegation members include Noel Buxton, MP, President of the Society; Rev. John Harris, Secretary; Edmund Wright Brooks, Treasurer; Joseph King, MP; H.W. Navinson, journalist and prominent English republican; Jospeh Burtt, publicist; and Georgina King Lewis, eminent publicist and philanthropist. Signed in print by signed Alfredo da Silva, Secretary.

[p. 11]: 4 newspaper clippings (pasted down), with the following articles: 1) ‘Sociedade anti-escravista de Londres…”, 15/11/1910; 2) ‘Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza / Chega a Lisboa uma deputação de Londres’, Mundo, 15/11/1910; 3) ‘‘Serviçais de S. Tomé’, Diário de Notícias, 15/11/1910; 4) ‘Anit-esclavismo’, O Século, 15/11/1910.

[p. 12-13]: 9 newspaper clippings (pasted down), from Lisbon papers concerning the visit of the leadership of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society to Lisbon.

[p. 14]: 2 newspaper clippings (pasted down), from the Daily News, London: ‘Portugal & the Cocoa Plantations: Liberty of the Natives to be Guaranteed’ and ‘San Thome Slavery’, 23/11/1910.

[p. 15]: [MSS. CHART: INFANT MORTALITY STATISTICS, PRÍNCIPE ISLAND, 1908].
“Mapa das crianças nascidas nas roças da Ilha do Príncipe existentes em 1908, demostrado a grande mortalidade infantil”.
1 f., folding (25 x 31.5 cm), black pen on graph paper.
This manuscript chart, clearly predicated upon official statistics, lists and names the 25 main chocolate roças (plantations) on the Island of Príncipe, giving the annual infant mortality statistics for the Serviçaes (migrant workers) on each for the years 1894 to 1908. It shows that infant mortality was quite low in the 1890s, but steadily climbed to shockingly high rates by 1908. In total, 480 babies died on the roças of Príncipe between 1894 and 1908. It was believed that the rise in rates was not only due the expansion of the plantations (i.e., a higher number of labourers and their families), but also severely deteriorating working conditions.

[p. 16]: 7 newspaper clippings (pasted down) from major Lisbon papers from the end of November 1910, concerning the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza’s diverse lobbying efforts against slavery and exploitative labour practices, including the matter of recruiting indigenous people in Mozambique to work in South Africa.

[p. 17]: 2 small, printed flyers (pasted down), both titled ‘Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza’ and signed in print by the organization’s President, Magalhães Lima. The first announces a meeting on November 29, 1910 at 8:30 PM, to be held at the offices of the Economsita Portugues, during which of the board of the Sociedade will give presentations to the visiting delegation of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society on matters in São Tomé and the issue of recruiting indigenous people in Mozambique to serve in near-slavery conditions for jobs, often in the mines of the Transvaal. The second flyer announces a meeting of the members of the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza to be held on November 17 at the offices of the headquarters of the Association of Portuguese Journalists, Lisbon. He main topic will be migrant labour from East Africa.

[p. 18]: 1 small card (8 x 11 cm, pasted down) entitled ‘Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza / Lisboa’, dated December 17, 1910, inviting a dignitary (addressed as “Your Excellency”) to a meeting of the Sociedade to be held the following Saturday at the headquarters of the Association of Portuguese Journalists. Various committee reports will be tendered, while there will be a presentation from Jaime Leote do Rego, the former Governor of São Tomé and Príncipe. The name of the invitee is not given, presumably it would be filled in manuscript on a case-by-case basis. Additionally, there are 6 small newspaper clippings from Lisbon papers, from December 1910, focussing on the matters of recruiting labourers for Mozambique to work in the Transvaal and Rhodesia.

[p. 19]: [Financial Contribution form for the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza].
1f. form (13 x 24.5 cm, pasted down). This blank sample form allows one to fill out the particulars of a donation to the Sociedade.

[pp. 20-24]: 23 newspaper clippings (pasted down), from Lisbon papers, from January and February 1911, mainly concerning the enslavement of cacao workers in São Tomé and Príncipe and the Sociedade’s efforts to free them

[p. 25]: Newspaper clippings (pasted down), being an editorial by Sociedade board member, Antonio Simões Raposo (a Judge in Angola), entitled ‘Logica… de um homem de Negocios’, form O Século, 17/2/1911.

[pp. 26-8]: 12 newspaper clippings (pasted down), from Portuguese papers from February and March 1911, mainly discussing the efforts of the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza to pressure the Portuguese government to end slavery in the cocoa islands; includes the announcement of Willam Cadbury’s visit to Porto.

Placed between pp. 28 and 29:
1)
Antonio d’Almeida DIAS, Projecto de Regulamento para o trabalho indigena em Angola / Supplemento ao numero 192 de O Benguella (Benguella, Angola: Typ. Bengullense de Taveres & C.a, 1910). {12° (17 x 12 cm): 35 pp., original printed paper wrappers (Very Good, slight toning)}.

This extremely rare and fascinating pamphlet was written by Antonio d’Almeida Dias, a native of Castro Daire (near Viseu, northern Portugal) and a graduate in law from Coimbra University. It was published in Benguela, Angola, buy the press of the local newspaper. Importantly, it proposes a clever and more humane labour code for workers within Angola, as well as emigrant labourers going to other colonies, namely São Tomé and Príncipe.

Dias writes that “There has certainly been an essential need for labour regulations in Angola and we will do everything we can to create an impartial and open-minded project that aims for a general summary, based on the best principles of retribution, civilisation, morality and humanity”. He says that “Agriculture cannot die because it is the lever of commerce… and only indigenous work will be able to sustain” such industry, and that the “European element can and should only be to play the role of educator…”. He continues, remarking that “The contract between the former and latter necessarily produces wealth, civilization and prosperity and a remunerative future for the indigenous person”.

As such, “There is an imperative need for a working regime with reciprocal and satisfied obligations… A law that will alleviate this rattle of ill-feelings and accusations, in which we all mess around…”. Not only will paying black labourers be ethical, but it but it will add more consumers to society who will purchase goods and create “commercial turnover” for the broader economy. It clear that “the government is responsible for monitoring the mutual obligations of the master and servant”.

Dias writes a sample piece of labour legislation for Angola, comprising 8 chapters:
Chapter 1) mandates that black workers in Angola should be paid much higher minimum wages than they currently receive. It will be obligatory for all black people to work and have a fixed address. The annual wages should range from 4,500 to 8,000 Reis, depending on the worker’s qualifications, job and location.
Chapter 2) Each municipality in Angola must form a commission of labour inspectors. Prospective employers of black Angolans must submit the full amount of the wages for all their workers at the end of each month, and this money will be paid to the workers by the commission on the first Sunday of the next month. Workers must work, and their bosses must pay – any shenanigans or violations of obligations will see perpetrators fined or jailed.
Chapter 3) 8% of workers’ wages will be taken to pay for healthcare and for the work of the labour commissioners. Labour commissioners must be well paid (at 80,000 Reis per month), as much will be expected of them.
Chapter 4) There should be a monthly audit of the accounts of the labour commissioners, while meticulous lists of labourers per workplace must be kept and constantly updated.
Chapter 5) Workers will be given free accommodation by their employers for the first quarter, while thereafter subsidies will be given to workers to build their own homes. There will be hospitals and mandatory health checks for workers
Chapter 6) Basic education and training for workers will be mandatory and salaries will be given to black masters who teach skills and crafts.

Chapter 7) Workers must be baptized and attend Sunday Mass.
Chapter 8) There will be ‘correction homes’ for wayward workers run under a humane regime. Those admitted 3 times to such homes can be exiled. Employers of workers who voluntary wish to work outside of Angola must post a bond of 30,000 Reis in advance to the relevant labour commission, with the payment being used to pay the worker’s wages. São Tomé and Príncipe will be considered a “special zone”, and workers will be subject to 50% higher wages. All emigrant workers must be repatriated to Angola after their pre-agreed terms of service have concluded.
The present work is extremely rare. We can locate only a single institutional example, held as part of the Alfredo Henrique da Silva Archive at the Arquivo de História Social, Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (AHS-ICS-AHSilva-ESC-SER-5-B-02), while we are aware of single sales record for an example from 2010. Pamphlet cited in Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, vol. 81 (1963), p. 74.

2) Georgina King Lewis, Slavery in the 20th Century (London: Headley Brothers, [1910]) {12° (15 x 9 cm): 20 pp., bound in original printed card covers (Good, toning to covers and spotting, especially to initial two leaves}.

This work, written by Georgina King Lewis (1847 – 1924), the famed British author, philanthropist and “Friend of the Oppressed”, describes how the “harrowing stories” of the ill treatment of black workers by recent visitors to São Tomé and Príncipe have not been exaggerated. She notes how the cacao baron Francisco Manero’s new book “Manual Labor” [Francisco Manero, A Mao d’obra em S. Thome e Principe (Lisbon, 1910)] confirms that the plantation owners are totally unapologetic.

King Lewis says that there is undeniable and ample proof of slavery in São Tomé and Príncipe, as the “awful traffic goes unabated” and there “the mixture of rum bottles, shackles and bleached bones is enough to make one sick”. An eyewitness said that “every day, I am seeing signs of the slave trade”, as on “wayside trees” are “hung with disused shackles…”. Angolans refer to the cacao islands as “Oklanga” (Hell), while 6,000 adults and 500 children as sent to São Tomé and Príncipe as slaves every year. Lewis King asserts that the islands’ slave population of 40,000 dies off within 10 years. Extreme pressure must be exerted upon the Portuguese government to end this evil.

This work is rare. We cannot locate any sales records, while we are aware of around a dozen examples in institutions {OCLC: 3038225, cited in Lowell Joseph SATRE, Chocolate on Trial: Slavery, Politics, and the Ethics of Business (2005), p. 283}.

[p. 29]: ‘Reprinted from the Africa Mail 13 January 1911” (2 pp.): journal expect on glossy paper (30.5 x 19 cm, glued to album at lefthand margin, toned), publishing a letter written by Cadbury Bros. and related information. In the letter, Cadbury notes that that vast amounts of São Tomé and Príncipe cacao are now being stored in Lisbon, available for sale for very reasonable prices. This cacao is being bought by Dutch, German and American chocolate makers. However, Cadbury will not end their embargo of São Tomé and Príncipe cocoa, as it does not believe that enough has been done to end slavery and the abuse of workers on the islands.

[p. 30]: ‘Carta publicada no “Scotsman” de Novembro 23, 1910. A Escravature em S. Tomé / Denson House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London S.W. November 21, 1910.
Carbon copy of typescript (28 x 20.5 cm, 1 f. pasted down, toned and faintly printed).
This is a partial typescript letter from the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society to the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza, written in Portuguese, pledging continued cooperation between the two organizations.

[p. 31]: Voz de Angola, Suplemento ao no. 24 (130) do 3.o ano, June 16, 1910 (Luanda: Typ. Mondego), 1 f. folio (folding, 53 x 33.5 cm) (hairline tear from hinge entering text closed from verso with archival tape).
This is a looseleaf supplement from the Luanda newspaper, Voz de Angola (est. 1907), that while published on June 16, 1910, during the twilight of the monarchical era, and some months before the foundation of the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza, it highlights precisely the type of problems that the Sociedade would be formed to combat. Printed here is an article that notes that the Portuguese Naval Ministry’s decision to authorize 300 Angolan workers to be sent to toil on building a railway in Damaraland, Deutsch-Südwestafrika (Namibia), and that this move has been met with angry protests from across several communities in Luanda. The Germans’ treatment of black workers was known to be especially appalling, while during the recent Herero and Nama Genocide (1904-8) they had murdered over 100,000 of the own subjects in Deutsch-Südwestafrika. Letters protesting the decision are printed after the article, including one from the Mayor of Luanda, José Moreira Freire. All issues of, or supplements from, colonial Angolan newspapers are today extreme rarities.

[pp. 32-4]: 11 newspaper clippings (pasted down), from Portuguese papers, from March 1911, describing the lobbying efforts of the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza, as well as an article excoriating the colonial government in Angola for not protecting its residents from being enslaved.

Placed between pp. 34 and 35:
SOCIEDADE ANTI-ESCLAVAGISTA PORTUGUEZA, ‘Projecto de Novo Regimen de Contractos de Serviçais de S. Tomé Principe enviado pelo Snr. Ministro da Marinha á Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza para dar sobre elle – O seu Parecer –’.
[No date, but Spring 1911].
Typescript, 5 pp. (28 x 22 cm), On Sociedade letterhead, stapled (Good, first page toned).

In this memorandum, the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza considers a new proposal by the Portuguese Ministry of the Navy to regulate migrant black labour to eliminate slavery and abuse. It commences by asserting that “It is essential to reconstitute the regime of Serviçais’ contracts in the province of S. Tomé e Principe, ensuring the absolute voluntary nature of the migrants, the exact implementation of the conditions of work by contract, full personal freedom, and the unwavering certainty of reparation to the regions of origin”.

While the proposed new legislation does mandate the establishment of a new repatriation fund to guarantee the return of labourers to their homelands once their contracts

Da Silva recalls that when he first arrived in Lourenço Marques in 1891, “I immediately recognized that blacks were generally mistreated by whites”. His first run-in with crimes against the ingenious people occurred when he witnessed how a black man selling chickens was physically attacked by a white man when he refused to sell him fowls for the low price that the European demanded.

As many black Mozambicans or their relatives had worked in the Transvaal gold mines, earning British £, they were seen as prime targets by corrupt government officials, who acted like bandits, extorting or stealing this desirable currency. As such, cattle farmers were often terrorized and forced to pay large fines for no legitimate reason, in British £, or to hand over their livestock. Rogue Portuguese officials also charged black hunters an incredibly high tax in British £, and if they could not pay, they were beaten or had their hunting huts set on fire.

Blacks were overworked as contract labourers on the Lourenço Marques-Pretoria Railway and were often not paid their full wages as promised. In some cases, when the railway was short of labour, the Mozambique colonial authorities even apprehended black civilians and forced them to work without compensation (i.e., as slaves). Abuses such as this led to what was known as the ‘Revolta Cafreal’ (1894). This insurrection was suppressed, and things continued in the same way as before.

In 1900, when Freire d’Andrade took charge of a newspaper in Lourenço Marques, he included a section in its pages called ‘Echo deo Inigenas’, whereby he publicized instances of black workers being mistreated by their employers, as well as naming and shaming the government officials responsible for turning a blind eye or committing abuse. He noted that his campaigns against this wicked conduct were quite successful, as it led to the perpetrators being arrested, and the victims being released and compensated. Recalling a horrific incident, in Manica District, a colonial official had tortured a group of black people, while the same man, “for something almost unimportant… killed a black man with an axe to the head”, monstrous events that Freire d’Andrade deemed “a shameful comedy”.

While Freire d’Andrade’s bold media campaigns against the abuse of black Mozambicans met with a great deal of resistance from the perpetrators, it succeeded in gaining justice for specific crimes, although the government took little action, such that the general situation improved little. The ‘Maquingoane Revolt’ in Gaza occurred largely as a reaction to the official harassment and robbing of cattle herders.

Freire d’Andrade records how a colonial official was also involved in incidents of sexual depravity against local girls, such that he sarcastically refers to him as a “Magnificent agent of civilization!”. He also notes how his journalism publicly exposed the existence of Lourenço Marques’s three “human flesh markets”, in which women were sold into sexual slavery, so causing embarrassed civic authorities to shut down these horrible places.

He also wrote a disturbing exposé about how, in the Zambezia District, a man named the Conde Ainuelle had ordered several black men to be killed, after which he sent one of their skulls to be displayed at a museum in Marseille. The horrific story was then taken up by international newspapers, as far away as Berlin.

Freire d’Andrade had a recommendation for ensuring good order and prosperity in Mozambique. He said that the whites and the authorities should “Treat the natives well, respect their property and customs – let us do to them that we would have them do to us, and we will have magnificent collaborations to make the Province of Mozambique rich and happy”. The focus should be on creating a critical mass of prosperous blacks to spend money to sustain the economy, as whites tend to either squirrel their money away or send it back to Portugal, such that “The wealth of the back man is more useful to the province than the wealth of the white man”.

Next, there follows Freire d’Andrade’s proposed ‘Projecto’ to improve the treatment of black Mozambicans, both in their homeland and in the Transvaal. At its core is the ‘Missão protetora das raças indígenas” (pp. 10-2), which calls for the creation of “A civil mission…with headquarters in Lourenço Marques with the objective of exercising active and effective surveillance of the moral and material interests of the indigenous people of the entire province, providing them with all protection and support on their legitimate demands and intervening in all acts that may harm or cause damage to these indigenous people”.

The voting members of the commission will include the head of the indigenous affairs department of Mozambique (to serve as the board’s chairman) or another official appointed by the Governor-General in his stead; a delegate from the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza (to serve as its prosecutor); and a doctor from the state health services (to be its health inspector). Additionally, an indigenous Christian missionary will be a non-voting member (to serve as its interpreter).

The commission will also be responsible for arranging for the construction of infrastructure to improve the lives of black Mozambicans, including the building of wells and reservoirs for drinking water, schools, roads and markets for farmers’ produce, as well as rendering assistance in cattle raising. Compliance with the fair treatment of workers will be further supervised by professional associations, labour unions and the government.

Under the subheading ‘Do trabalho compoulsorio’ (p. 12), it is noted that it is, and should be, compulsory for all people, white, black and mestiço, in Mozambique to work, unless they are physically infirm or are demonstrably so wealthy that they do not have to (i.e., there should be no idleness in the colony). The govern should be allowed to press gang black civilians onto performing free labour (i.e. unpaid, corvée labour), but only under very limited circumstances, concerning the urgent building of roads, reservoirs and wells.

At the end, there is a note, signed by Alfredo Henrique da Silva, revealing that this paper was presented to the meeting of the Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza on March 22, 1911.
We can trace only a single other example of this work, held as part of the Fundo AHSilva – Espólio Alfredo Henrique da Silva (Arquivo de História Social, Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa: PT-AHS-ICS-AHSilva-ESC-SAP-1-03).

Tipped-in between pp. 40 and 41:
4 ff. leaves from the English journal, The African Mail, from August and October 1910

had expired, to be overseen by the authorities, overall, the measures seem to be merely a retouching of the weak worker’s protection provisions in the 1903 Serviçais law. We have not been able to trace another example of this document.

[p. 35-6]: 8 newspaper clippings (pasted down), from various titles from Portugal, England and Angola, from February and March 1911, discussing the Sociedade’s activities and events relating to slavery and black labour in the colonies, including an account of a meeting of journalists at the Sociedade’s HQ, discussing slavery in Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe and Mozambique.

Placed between pp. 36 and 37:
A Voz de S. Thomé, Anno I, num. II, February 2, 1911,
4 pp. folio (folding, 49 x 33 cm), mounted on guards.
This is a complete issue of the A Voz de S. Thomé newspaper, a liberal republican title printed on the island. The rather incendiary articles decry the horrific abuse of black labourers on the island. One article, “Scenes degredantes’ [Degrading Scenes], likens some events in São Tomé to those in the famed American anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. For example, some labourers who left their roças after their contracts had expired were chased down by armed gangs employed by the plantation owners and dragged back to the estates where they were re-enslaved, while an old woman was forced to work almost to death. All along, the government ‘curator’, who was supposed to protect the labourers, supported the plantation owners’ actions. Elsewhere, it is announced that a group of 11 men who beat a black labourer to death are set to be released without facing trial, while a curador is said to have whipped a female labourer who refused to sign a renewal of her contract.

[pp. 37-41]: 13 newspaper clippings (pasted down), from various Portuguese titles, dating from 1911, mainly giving news of the Sociedade’s activities, as well as on instances of slavery and the abuse of black workers in various places, including in São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, and South Africa.

Placed between pp. 38 and 39:
José Maria d’Araujo FREIRE D’ANDRADE.
‘Memorandum apresentado á Sociedade Anti-Esclavagista Portugueza e acompanhado dum Projecto para uma Missão Protectora das Raças Indigenas pelo ex.mo José Maria d’Araujo Freire d’Andrade’.
Lisbon, March 20, 1911.
12 pp., stapled (27 x 21.5 cm).

This highly engaging memorandum highlights the discrimination and abuse that black Mozambiquans regularly had to ensure, often at the hands of cruel and corrupt colonial officials. Written by José Maria d’Araujo Freire d’Andrade, an eminent journalist and civil rights campaigner who worked for 20 years in Mozambique, it recounts his time mounting bold media campaigns against the horrific crimes that were directed against indigenous Africans in Mozambique and the Transvaal, followed by a proposal for creating a high-level commission for protecting black labourers in those regions.

featuring articles and editorials, including ‘The Angola-San Thomé Labour Question. The Views of an Ex-Governor of Angola’; ‘A Translation of a Chapter from “Angola”, by Captain Henrique de Paiva Couceiro / Servicais de San Thomé’; ‘Editorial. The Angola-San Thomé Problem’; ‘San Thomé Cacao in Relation to British Consumption… By Mr. William A. Cadbury’

[p. 42]: This, the last entry in the archive, is a lengthy newspaper clipping (pasted down), from the República newspaper, dated 31/3/1911, which recounts José Maria d’Araujo Freire d’Andrade’s aforementioned ‘Memorandum.

References: N/A – Present archive seemingly not recorded. Cf. [For an institutional archive that features related items:] Fundo AHSilva – Espólio Alfredo Henrique da Silva (Arquivo de História Social. Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa, shelfmark: PT-AHS-ICS-AHSilva):
https://www.ahsocial.ics.ulisboa.pt/atom/index.php/arquivo-alfredo-henrique-da-silva ;
David Glyn EVANS, ‘The Chocolate Makers and the “Abyss of Hell”: Race, Empire and the Role of Visual Propaganda in the Anglo-Portuguese Controversy surrounding Labour Coercion in the “Cocoa Islands”’ (1901 – 1917), PhD. Thesis, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (July 11, 2022).