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Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes manumission mechanisms as a path to freedom and their meanings in colonial Mozambique. Drawing from instruments to free the enslaved persons, such as wills and letters of manumission, this paper suggests that the freedom recognized to them was uncertain and unstable.

Paper long abstract:

In the past, African societies in present-day Mozambique recognized a range of forms of dependency, including slavery. Specific circumstances brought vulnerable persons into situations of destitution and exploitation. Most of the enslaved individuals sold themselves or were sold by their kin in times of famine and debts while others were captives of war.

Since the 16th century, the Portuguese settlers in Mozambique, along the Zambezi River and some coastal areas, appropriated African practices of bondage to obtain manpower and therefore extending significantly the number of enslaved persons. These slaves worked in commerce, agriculture, domestic service army, and administration according to gender and hierarchical divisions of labour.

Before the legal abolition of slavery, the paths to freedom recognized by Portuguese law consisted of manumission letters, wills and baptism records. While the last two instruments were based mostly on the will of the master, enslaved individuals could also buy their letters of manumission. Portuguese sources suggest that manumissions were rare at least until the early nineteenth century and they expressed gender imbalance options of the slaves' owners.

This paper analyzes manumission mechanisms as a path to freedom and their meanings in colonial Mozambique. Drawing from instruments to free the enslaved persons, such as wills and letters of manumission, this paper suggests that the freedom recognized to them was uncertain and unstable.