Marques de Pombal | Lisbon | Portugal
There is a
Portuguese colonial myth that became a Portuguese colonial common
sense that fables Portugal has the first nation to abolish slavery in
1761, by the hand of Marquis de Pombal, adhering to a future humanist
ideal and recognizing Portuguese dark colonial past. It is a myth
because between 1757 until 1778 Marquis de Pombal founded the charted
company Companhia Geral de Comercio do Grão Pará e Maranhão and through it he gain
the monopoly of the slave trade of Africans in the region. Between 1755 and 1777,
the estimated population of African slaves - that had been taken from
their homes in Cacheu, Bissau and Angola - grew from 3,000 to 12,000,
all of whom had been bought with company funds, giving a huge profit to the Portuguese crown.