Trans-Atlantic Lives: Slavery and Freedom in West Africa and Brazil

FAIN: FA-55691-11

Kristin Mann
Emory University (Atlanta, GA 30322-1018)

My project will use court records from the British colony of Lagos to identify persons of slave origin mentioned in them and to recover information about their lives in West Africa and Brazil. The stories these individuals told in court will be analyzed for the memories they contain of the slave trade, slavery, and freedom on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as for the insights they yield into the social relationships and cultural practices of these slaves and freed people. Further research using archival sources in Brazil and from Nigeria and Britain will flesh out the biographies of the slaves and freed people identified in the court records, illuminating how they sustained relationships with one another across time and space. By casting new light on the networks of exchange, sociability, and belief that bridged the Atlantic between the Bight of Benin and Brazil in the nineteenth century, my research will contribute to knowledge about the vibrant diaspora linking these regions.