Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History / The 1693 Capture of the Princesa: A Portuguese Slave Ship's Last Voyage
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about the British and French slave ships, the Royal African Company, the Dutch — but there's another major player we haven't really zoomed in on: the Portuguese. And I want to tell you about a specific ship from 1693, the Princesa. It was a Portuguese slave ship, and its story is this wild intersection of the slave trade and piracy. Luna: I feel like we don't hear as much about Portuguese slavers in this period. They were still huge in the business though, right? Lucas: Absolutely. By the 1690s, Portugal had been in the slave trade for nearly two centuries. They controlled Angola, they had a massive presence in Brazil — and the Princesa was part of that system. It sailed from Luanda, which is the capital of present-day Angola, in 1693, carrying over 500 enslaved Africans. Destination: Brazil, specifically probably Recife or Salvador. Lucas: The ship was heavily armed for a slaver — it had twenty cannons, which tells you something about the risks. Not just from rebellions on board, but from pirates. And sure enough, somewhere in the South Atlantic, the Princesa was intercepted by English pirates. Not privateers — pirates. Luna: Wait — pirates capturing a slave ship? That's not something you hear about often. What happened to the people on board? Lucas: That's the really dark part. The pirates took the ship, but they didn't free the enslaved Africans. They saw the captives as cargo — valuable cargo. So they actually took control of the Princesa and tried to sell the people themselves. But the problem was, the pirates couldn't just sail into a Brazilian port; they'd be arrested. So they had to find a buyer on the black market, which was risky. Luna: So the enslaved people just ended up being transferred from one set of captors to another. That's brutal. Lucas: Exactly. And what's even more telling is that the pirates weren't able to complete the sale quickly. The ship ended up drifting for weeks, with conditions deteriorating. Many of the enslaved Africans died from disease and starvation, because the pirates didn't care about keeping them alive long-term. They just wanted a quick profit. Lucas: Eventually, a Portuguese naval vessel recaptured the Princesa, but by then, the death toll was huge. Out of the original 500-plus captives, only about 200 survived. The pirates were caught and executed — but that doesn't really balance the scales, does it? Luna: No, it doesn't. And this story kind of shows how everyone in that system — the Portuguese, the pirates, even the Brazilian planters — saw enslaved people as commodities. Nobody's hands were clean. Lucas: That's the throughline of this whole history. And the Princesa case is a good window into the 1690s, which was a peak decade for the slave trade. The demand for sugar in Europe was skyrocketing, and Brazil was one of the biggest producers. Every year, thousands of people were taken from Angola and shipped across the Atlantic. Lucas: The Portuguese had a well-oiled machine. They had forts like São Miguel in Luanda, and they worked with local African kingdoms — like the Kingdom of Kongo and the Imbangala — to acquire captives. The trade was deeply embedded in both economies. Luna: It's interesting that you mention the Kongo kingdom. Because we've talked about the Asante and Dahomey on the Gold Coast, but I don't know much about how the slave trade operated in the Congo region. Lucas: It's a whole different dynamic. In the Congo, the kingdom of Kongo had a complex relationship with the Portuguese — sometimes trading partners, sometimes victims. By the 1690s, the kingdom was in decline, partly because of internal strife and partly because the slave trade was draining its population. The Portuguese often raided or manipulated local conflicts to get captives. Lucas: And the Princesa's cargo would have come from various groups in the interior — captured in wars or through raids, then marched to the coast. The journey to Luanda was itself deadly. We're talking about a system that destroyed millions of lives. Luna: I want to go back to the pirates for a second. You said they were English. Was that common — English pirates targeting Portuguese slavers? Lucas: Very common. In the late 17th century, the English were both competing with the Portuguese and, in some cases, cooperating. But pirates were equal-opportunity predators. They'd attack any ship that looked profitable. And slave ships were prime targets because they carried valuable 'cargo' and often had gold or goods from Africa too. Lucas: There are records of pirates capturing dozens of slave ships in the 1690s. Some pirates even became slavers themselves — they'd capture a ship and then try to sell the people. It's a grim reminder that in this era, human life was just another commodity. Luna: So the Princesa story is kind of emblematic of that whole ugly world. Lucas: Exactly. And the aftermath is also telling. The Portuguese authorities in Brazil were furious, but they couldn't do much. The English government sometimes turned a blind eye to piracy, especially when it hurt their rivals. So the Princesa just became a statistic — one of many ships lost to pirates, with a huge human cost. Lucas: There's a document I came across — a report from the Portuguese governor of Angola at the time, complaining about the 'insolence' of pirates. He estimated that in just a few years, pirates had captured over a dozen Portuguese slavers, resulting in the loss of thousands of enslaved people. But of course, the loss was measured in money, not lives. Luna: That's the part that's so hard to stomach — the dehumanization. Even the pirates, who were outlaws, saw the enslaved people as just goods. Lucas: Right. And speaking of seeing things from a different perspective — if you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you know we try to bring these stories to light without any ads or corporate sponsors. That's because this podcast is listener-supported. People like you, who care about history and want to hear these conversations, make it possible. If you'd like to help keep us going, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but every bit helps us keep digging into these stories. Luna: And it really does make a difference. We get to spend more time on research and bring you these deep dives. Lucas: So back to the Princesa. What I find striking is that even after the ship was recaptured, the surviving enslaved people weren't freed. They were still considered property, so they were sold in Brazil anyway. The only difference was who got the profit — the Portuguese crown instead of the pirates. Luna: So the system just rolled on. The individuals didn't matter. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the tragedy of the Atlantic slave trade. It was a machine that consumed people and turned them into sugar, tobacco, and gold. The Princesa is just one cog in that machine, but it's a cog we can look at and understand how the whole thing worked. Lucas: If you want to learn more about the Portuguese slave trade, I recommend looking into the work of historian Joseph Miller, who wrote a book called 'Way of Death' about the Angolan slave trade. It's dense but incredibly revealing. Luna: I'll have to check that out. For now, thanks for bringing this story to light, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks for listening. And as always, we'll be back next time with another chapter from this dark but essential history.