Abstract:
The Provedoria-Mor da Saúde of Pernambuco (Brazil), the government agency which took care of public health in Pernambuco, was created in 1810. Thereafter, slave ships that arrived at Recife were visited by health agents who verified if the recently arrived enslaved people carried diseases which were considered contagious, according to the 19th century medical sciences. Only those who carried the said maladies were sent to the Santo Amaro Leprosarium to be treated. Once they were healed, they were returned to their owners to be sold. The employees of that health agency examined slave ships that carried more than 47 thousand people to Recife. Their reports help us to understand how the slave trade was carried out in a major Brazilian harbor, before it was declared illegal in 1831.
Key words:
slave trade; contagious diseases; quarantine; Recife harbor