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AFAIK the African slave trade is not a visible topic on Lisbon because it was a very small part of it. While Portugal trafficked millions of people across the A
by gonmf 9y ago
AFAIK the African slave trade is not a visible topic on Lisbon because it was a very small part of it. While Portugal trafficked millions of people across the Atlantic, very few would be sent to Europe, since the Christian faith didn't see it with good eyes, and there was much more demand for hard labor in the "new world".
- boomboomsubban 9y agoThe article mentions ten percent of their population were slaves in the sixteenth century, and Christianity was not what had an issue with it. Portuguese Brazil was a huge part of the slave trade, and it was the same Christianity as Portugal.
- gonmf 9y agoI don't want to be a downer but that statistic doesn't seem to be backed by anything. And yes, Portuguese in Brazil were also christian, of course, but there is a certain "what the eyes don't see, the heart can't feel" feeling about it. Public opinion and the church would care much less what happened far away, months away. Many countries would abolish slavery at "home" but tolerate it in the colonies.
- boomboomsubban 9y agoThe article provides one source for the statistic, Wikipedia provides two more. All are from books that I can not access the reference, but one of them does let me read about the Queen's five Brazilian slaves in addition to the many African slaves. The Church may have been a reason, very different than the Christian faith