Esperança (1822)

Voyage Overview

The Portuguese Sumaca, Esperança, left Bahia on 9 October 1821 and purchased 149 enslaved people at Lagos by 15 April 1822. The captain, Plácido José da Maia, sailed the vessel back toward Brazil when Captain Christopher Knight of the HMS Morgiana captured the vessel at an unspecified location off the coast of Africa. Although the ship’s owner, Antônio José de Souza, was never formerly charged, the British and Portuguese Court of Mixed Commission, Sierra Leone condemned this vessel and registered 147 Liberated Africans by 8 June 1822. For more information, see Map of 1822.

Archival Resources

1822-06-08 Esperança V2920 FO315-31 f70-74

1822-06-08 Esperança V2920 FO84-15 f156-158

1822-06-08 Esperança V2920 Register1 SLR14879-15025

Creator

Parliamentary Papers, Accounts and Papers, "Return of the Number of SLAVE VESSELS arrived in the TRANSATLANTIC STATES since 1814...," vol. 49 (1845), 593-633.

Description

This ship list contains a total of 2,313 transatlantic slave voyages leaving from all parts of Africa and arriving to many places in the Americas. The long title of the document conveys fourteen columns of information : "Number of SLAVE VESSELS arrived in the TRANSATLANTIC STATES since 1814; their Names; Description as Brig, Schooner, Ship, &c.; Master's Names; Tonnage; Armament; Number of Crew; National Flag; whether Empty or with Slaves (whose Numbers are to be stated); the Loss by Death on the Voyage; from what Part of Africa arrived; the Length of Passage; and Date of Arrival; so far as these Particulars are known to Her Majesty's Government." Unfortunately, this resource does not contain much information about the individuals on board. From this record, ports of departure for Yoruba speakers were reflected in the column called "From What Part of Africa," which contains spelling variations for the ports of Lagos (Onim, Lagos, Rio Lagos), Ouidah (Ajuda, Ajudah, Ayuda), Little Popo (Popoe), or sometimes more broadly as "Coast of Mina." Yoruba speakers were also among those people grouped into categories such as "Chiefly from Onim, Bonny and New Calabar," which indicate a mixture of ports in the bights of Benin and Biafra.

Creator Title

Meyer-Heiselberg, Richard, Notes from Liberated African Department: Extracts from Sources on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 1808-1860 from the Archives at Fourah Bay College, The University College of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone (Uppsala: The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1967).

Description

In 1966, Meyer-Heiselberg compiled a preliminary inventory of the registers’ contents, including systematic notes on the age and gender distribution of Liberated Africans. He projected that the overall total was 94,329 individuals. Of that total, just over 30,000 departed from ports in the Bight of Benin, whereby over 20,000 likely had Yoruba names documented therein. Scholars continue to work on the story of Liberated Africans, which amounts to over 225,000 worldwide and made accessible via www.LiberatedAfricans.org.

Creator

Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (APEB), Maço 456, “Alvarás de navegação (registros),” 1789-1822, f. 288-308v.

Description

The available metadata on this archival resource includes: type of vessel, date and place of departure from Bahia, and names of the captain and owner (if known). However, there is much missing data since the record refers to outbound vessels and not inbound arrivals; hence, totals for number of enslaved people on board is absent. The Voyages database provides estimates for these ship totals based on the type of vessel, which denotes tonnage and ship capacity. This record contains sparse details about Yoruba speakers beyond usages of "Costa da Mina," which is an ambiguous geographic slave trading term for the Gold Coast and Bight of Benin.

As Referenced in Voyages

Parliamentary Papers, Accounts and Papers, vol. 49 (1845), 593-633.

Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (Salvador da Bahia, Brazil), APEB, cod 456,

Verger, Pierre, Trade Relations Between the Bight of Benin and Bahia, 17th to 19th Century, (Ibadan, 1976), 568.

Irish University Press Series of British Parliamentary Papers: Slave Trade, v, IUPST, 11/A (Shannon, 1969-74), 8.

Irish University Press Series of British Parliamentary Papers: Slave Trade, v, IUPST, 11/B1 (Shannon, 1969-74), 60-61.

Meyer-Heiselberg, R., Notes from the Liberated African Department in the Archives at Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone (Uppsala, 1967), 15.

Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (Salvador da Bahia, Brazil), APEB, cod 456, p.304.

Arquivo Histórico Municipal de Salvador (Salvador da Bahia, Brazil), AHMS, 2.6, p. 6.