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Mozambique, in South-East Africa, became an important region of slave embarkation in the nineteenth century. The prohibition of the slave trade in the North Atlantic in 1815 by international law forced traders to search for new slave markets on the African coast. Mozambique was opened for the slave trade before that, but the distance of the region from the Americas was unattractive for most captains. Mozambique represented the longest route a slave vessel had to navigate before reaching the coasts of the New World. The risks and costs of maintaining the crew and the slaves were too high. The image shows the coast of Mozambique around 1853. It locates the principal ports along the coast and indicates the major rivers flowing from the interior of Mozambique. The map was published by Commander Francisco Maria Bordalo, responsible for completing a report on the Portuguese possessions overseas begun by Commander José Joaquim Lopes de Lima. The image is reproduced courtesy of the Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory University.
Metadata
Year
1853
Source
J.J. Lopes de Lima, Ensaios sobre a Statística das Possessões Portuguezas... (Lisbon, 1844-62), vol. 4, located at the end of the volume.
Language
Portuguese