Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History / The 1719 Capture of the Burla: Portugal's Hidden Slave Trade
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the slave trade in the Atlantic — the ships, the forts, the rebellions. But one thing we haven't really touched on is the sheer scale of the Portuguese slave trade, especially in the early 18th century, and how it operated under the radar of other European powers. Luna: Under the radar? I thought the Portuguese were one of the biggest players. Lucas: They were, absolutely. By the 1700s, Portugal was shipping maybe 40,000 enslaved Africans a year just to Brazil. But because they weren't as heavily involved in the Caribbean or North America, their trade often gets less attention in English-language histories. And it wasn't just the volume — it was the routes, the legal battles, the way they adapted to changing politics. Luna: So what's a good example of that? Lucas: Let me tell you about the Burla. In 1719, a Portuguese slave ship called the Burla was captured by a British privateer named John Hawkins — not that John Hawkins, a later one. The Burla had just loaded about 450 enslaved Africans at Luanda, in Angola, and was heading to Brazil when Hawkins intercepted her. What happened next tells you a lot about how the slave trade was both a business and a legal chessboard. Luna: Was Hawkins a pirate, or did he have permission? Lucas: He had a privateering commission from the British crown, which basically made him a legal pirate — he could seize enemy ships in wartime. But here's the thing: Britain and Portugal weren't at war in 1719. They were actually allies. So Hawkins's capture of the Burla was technically illegal under international law. But he argued that the Burla was carrying slaves from a region that Portugal didn't have exclusive rights to, and that the ship was violating British trade laws. Luna: Wait, so he was claiming Portugal didn't have the right to trade slaves from that part of Africa? Lucas: Exactly. Hawkins claimed that the Burla had loaded its human cargo at a port that fell under the jurisdiction of the British Royal African Company, not the Portuguese. The Royal African Company had a charter giving them a monopoly over trade from the Gold Coast and parts of the Slave Coast. But Luanda was in Angola, which was firmly Portuguese territory. So it was a flimsy argument, but it showed how aggressively European powers policed each other's slave trades, even in peacetime. Luna: So what happened to the Burla and the people on board? Lucas: Hawkins brought the Burla as a prize to Jamaica. The enslaved Africans were unloaded and sold, and the ship itself was condemned in a vice-admiralty court. But the Portuguese government protested, and the case eventually went to the British High Court of Admiralty in London. The court ruled that the capture was illegal — Hawkins had no right to seize a Portuguese ship carrying slaves from Angola. The Portuguese owners were awarded damages, but by then the enslaved people had already been sold and scattered across Jamaican plantations. Luna: So the legal ruling came too late for them. That's heartbreaking. Lucas: It's a pattern we see over and over — the law was about property, not humanity. The court didn't care that 450 people had been enslaved; it cared that Portuguese merchants had lost their 'investment' to an unauthorized seizure. But the Burla case is also a window into how the Portuguese slave trade operated. Luanda was the main port for the Angolan trade, and the Burla was probably owned by merchants in Rio de Janeiro or Bahia, part of a network that moved slaves from Angola to Brazil's sugar and gold mines. Luna: You mentioned John Hawkins — is he related to the famous Elizabethan slave trader? Lucas: Same family, different generation. The first John Hawkins was the one who started the English slave trade in the 1560s. This John Hawkins was likely a descendant, and he was a privateer operating out of Jamaica. It shows how the slave trade and privateering were intertwined — many British colonists in the Caribbean made their fortunes as much from capturing enemy slave ships as from running their own. Luna: How common was it for slave ships to be seized by privateers? Lucas: In wartime, very common. During the War of the Spanish Succession, which ended in 1714, French and Spanish privateers captured hundreds of slave ships. But peacetime seizures like the Burla were rarer and more legally contentious. They usually happened when a privateer pushed the boundaries of his commission. The Burla case became a precedent, cited in later disputes about the legality of capturing neutral or allied slave ships. Lucas: Now, the Portuguese slave trade from Angola was massive — by the 18th century, Luanda and its southern rival Benguela were shipping out tens of thousands of enslaved people each year. Most went to Brazil, especially to the sugar plantations of Pernambuco and Bahia, and later to the gold mines of Minas Gerais. The Portuguese crown taxed every slave exported, and the trade was a major revenue source for both Portugal and Brazil. Luna: I've heard that some Portuguese merchants got around restrictions by using smaller ports. Lucas: Yes, smuggling was rampant. The Portuguese had a system of contracts called asientos, but the demand in Brazil was so high that illegal slave ships often bypassed customs. The Burla itself might have been involved in such trade — Hawkins claimed she was carrying slaves from a region reserved for the Royal African Company, which was a stretch, but it hints at the complex jurisdictional claims that European powers made over African coasts. Lucas: Speaking of jurisdiction, one thing I find fascinating about the Burla case is how it reveals the different ways European nations regulated the slave trade. Portugal had a state-controlled monopoly system; Britain had a mix of royal charters and private traders; France operated through companies like the Compagnie de Guinée. All of them were trying to maximize profits while undercutting rivals. And enslaved Africans were the currency in this competition. Luna: It's like the slave trade was a globalized business with its own legal disputes and corporate battles. Lucas: Exactly. And the Burla is a microcosm of that. The ship's name itself is interesting — 'burla' in Portuguese means mockery or joke. Maybe it was named ironically, or maybe it was just a common name. But there's a grim irony in calling a slave ship 'the Joke' when the real joke was on the millions of people forced into that hell. Luna: Do we know anything about the captain or the crew of the Burla? Lucas: We have some records from the court case. The captain was a man named Manuel de Sousa, likely a Portuguese mariner experienced in the Brazil run. The crew would have been mostly Portuguese or Brazilian, with some African sailors. Life on a slave ship was brutal for everyone — high mortality from disease, violence, and the constant risk of rebellion. But for the enslaved, it was a nightmare of confinement, chains, and terror. Lucas: The Burla's voyage from Luanda to Jamaica instead of Brazil meant a longer Middle Passage for those 450 people. The normal route from Angola to Brazil took about 30 to 40 days. Going to Jamaica added another week or more, with worse conditions. We don't know exactly how many died, but mortality rates on slave ships averaged 10 to 15 percent. For the Burla's captives, that could mean 45 to 70 people perishing before they ever reached land. Luna: That's horrifying. And all because of a legal dispute between European powers. Lucas: Yeah. And here's the thing — we don't even know the names of any of those individuals. The court records mention the ship, the captain, the privateer, the merchants, but the enslaved people are just numbers. That's the tragedy of the slave trade: millions of human beings reduced to cargo, their identities erased. Cases like the Burla give us a glimpse into the machinery, but the human stories are mostly lost. Luna: That's something we try to remember in these episodes — the people behind the numbers. Lucas: Absolutely. And we keep this show ad-free precisely because we want to focus on that human dimension without commercial interruptions. If you appreciate that approach and want to support it, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that helps us keep doing the deep research and telling these stories. And now, back to the Burla — one more detail. After the court ruling, the Portuguese merchants who owned the Burla tried to recover their losses, but the enslaved people were never returned. They were absorbed into Jamaica's slave population, adding to the forced labor that built the British Empire's wealth. Luna: So the Burla's captives ended up on Jamaican sugar plantations, which were among the harshest in the Americas. Lucas: Exactly. Jamaica's sugar boom was in full swing by the 1710s, and planters were desperate for enslaved labor. The Burla's human cargo would have been sold at auction in Kingston or Port Royal. The survivors would have spent the rest of their lives cutting cane under the whip. The Burla case, for all its legal significance, is ultimately about the destruction of hundreds of lives. Lucas: So what can we take away from the Burla? First, it shows how the slave trade was a global enterprise with complex legal and economic dimensions. Second, it reminds us that European rivalries often determined the fate of enslaved people. And third, it highlights the sheer scale of the Portuguese trade, which carried more Africans to the Americas than any other nation. The Burla is just one ship, but it represents countless others that made the same voyage. Luna: And it's a reminder that even in peacetime, the slave trade was a battlefield. Lucas: Right. The Burla was captured not in a war, but in a commercial dispute. That says something about how deeply entrenched slavery was in the Atlantic economy. It wasn't just a tragic byproduct; it was the engine. And understanding cases like this helps us see that history isn't just about big events — it's about the specific ships, the specific people, the specific moments that made up the larger horror. Luna: Thanks for bringing the Burla to light. I'd never heard of it. Lucas: Glad to share. There are so many stories like this waiting to be told. Next time, maybe we'll look at the Portuguese slave trade from the African side — the kingdoms that supplied the captives, like the Kingdom of Kongo or the Imbangala.