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Paper short abstract:

This communication uses the perspective of local actors to analyse the impact of abolitionism on Mozambique Island at the height of slave trade in Portuguese East Africa.

Paper long abstract:

In contrast to the Atlantic World, slavery and slave trade in the Indian Ocean World has received scant attention despite a growing body of literature devoted to it. This communication aims to contribute to this growing historiographical field by bringing forward the case of Mozambique Island, the capital of Portuguese East Africa and a leading slaving port in the 1820s and 1830s when the exportation of enslaved people amounted an estimated 15,000 per year. The slave trade was outlawed by the decree of 10 December 1836. However, one thing was to outlaw it, another thing was to abolish it. The abolition of slave trading in Portuguese East Africa was fiercely resisted or simply non-applied by the local elites and the colonial authorities, while on the other side Lisbon lacked the political will and the means to enforce it. But, whereas some attention has been paid to the abolition of the slave trade from a Lisbon's perspective, there are much less studies built upon the Portuguese East Africa' perspective. This communication uses the perspective of local actors − such as governors, other colonial administrators and slave traders − to analyse the impact of abolitionism on Mozambique Island. The analysis will draw on primary sources gathered in the Portuguese and the Mozambican archives.