Description: This groundbreaking study tells the story of the highly organised, international legal court case for the abolition of slavery spearheaded by Prince Lourenço da Silva Mendonça in the seventeenth century. The case, presented before the Vatican, called for the freedom of all enslaved people and other oppressed groups. This included New Christians (Jews converted to Christianity) and Indigenous Americans in the Atlantic World, and Black Christians from confraternities in Angola, Brazil, Portugal and Spain. Abolition debate is generally believed to have been dominated by white Europeans in the eighteenth century. By centring African agency, José Lingna Nafafé offers a new perspective on the abolition movement, showing, for the first time, how the legal debate was begun not by Europeans, but by Africans. In the first book of its kind, Lingna Nafafé underscores the exceptionally complex nature of the African liberation struggle, and demystifies the common knowledge and accepted wisdom surrounding African slavery.
Brief description: José Lingna Nafafé is a Senior Lecturer in Portuguese and Lusophone Studies at the University of Bristol.
Review Quotes: 'By following Lourenço da Silva Mendonça in Angola, Brazil, Portugal and Spain and unveiling the criminal court case he presented before the Pope in 1684, José Lingna Nafafé reveals a universal message of freedom that in the 17th century crossed the Atlantic and reached the Vatican, doing justice to the African contribution to the abolitionist movement.' Giorgio de Marchis, Roma Tre University