Freedom and Lusophone African Diaspora in the 17th Century Atlantic

Between 2016 and 2017, Dr Lingna Nafafé held a University Research Fellowship and Leverhulme Research Fellowship, which allowed him to work on the project ‘Freedom and Lusophone African Diaspora in the 17th Century Atlantic’. This involved conducting extensive archival research in Europe and the Americas (in Portugal, Lisbon, Braga, and Coimbra; in Spain, Madrid, Valladolid, and Toledo, and in Rome, Italy; in Brazil, Salvador, Recife, Maceió, and Rio de Janeiro;) on a Prince from Ndongo (in modern Angola), Lourenço da Silva de Mendonça, and his court case in the Vatican, which was related to the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade from 1684 to 1686. Dr Lingna Nafafé is presently completing his second monograph that emerges from this research with the working title, Lourenço da Silva Mendonça: The Black Atlantic Abolition Movement in the 17th Century, which will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. The monograph examines Mendonça’s legal arguments, in which he accused nations involved in Atlantic slavery, including the Vatican, Italy, Spain and Portugal, of committing crimes against humanity and urged for the abolition of slavery in its entirety. In so doing, he allied himself with various constituencies in the Atlantic, including the New Christians (Jews) and the Native Amerindians whose liberty and humanity were being denied. Mendonça argues that Atlantic slavery was practised against the known intrinsic human values of ‘natural’, ‘human’, ‘divine’ and ‘civil laws’.

Between 2016 and 2017, Dr Lingna Nafafé held a University Research Fellowship and Leverhulme Research Fellowship, which allowed him to work on the project ‘Freedom and Lusophone African Diaspora in the 17th Century Atlantic’. This involved conducting extensive archival research in Europe and the Americas (in Portugal, Lisbon, Braga, and Coimbra; in Spain, Madrid, Valladolid, and Toledo, and in Rome, Italy; in Brazil, Salvador, Recife, Maceió, and Rio de Janeiro;) on a Prince from Ndongo (in modern Angola), Lourenço da Silva de Mendonça, and his court case in the Vatican, which was related to the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade from 1684 to 1686. Dr Lingna Nafafé is presently completing his second monograph that emerges from this research with the working title, Lourenço da Silva Mendonça: The Black Atlantic Abolition Movement in the 17th Century, which will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. The monograph examines Mendonça’s legal arguments, in which he accused nations involved in Atlantic slavery, including the Vatican, Italy, Spain and Portugal, of committing crimes against humanity and urged for the abolition of slavery in its entirety. In so doing, he allied himself with various constituencies in the Atlantic, including the New Christians (Jews) and the Native Amerindians whose liberty and humanity were being denied. Mendonça argues that Atlantic slavery was practised against the known intrinsic human values of ‘natural’, ‘human’, ‘divine’ and ‘civil laws’.

Key findings, Mendonça’s legal arguments, in which he accused nations involved in Atlantic slavery, including the Vatican, Italy, Spain and Portugal, of committing crimes against humanity and urged for the abolition of slavery in its entirety. In so doing, he allied himself with various constituencies in the Atlantic, including the New Christians (Jews) and the Native Amerindians whose liberty and humanity were being denied.
Atlantic slavery was practised against the law, such as ‘natural’, ‘human’, ‘divine’, ‘civil’ and ‘canon law [jus canonico]’.