ERASING THE NOTE THAT SAYS SLAVE: EFIGÊNIA DA SILVA, BAPTISM, COMPADRAZGO, NAMES, HEADS, CRIAS, SLAVE TRADE, SLAVERY AND FREEDOM (LUANDA, C. 1770-C. 1811)* ¹

Abstract

Based on baptismal records from Luanda’s Parish of Nossa Senhora Conceição, this paper analyzes urban slavery in Angola’s main slave port in the late eighteenth century. Against the backdrop of the transatlantic slave trade, we argue that baptism and godparenting ties served as strategies for African women to evade deportation to Brazil through the slave trade. Baptism and the use of Christian names set Luanda’s enslaved population apart from enslaved Africans shipped abroad, who were neither baptized nor received Christian names because they were destined for the Atlantic slave trade. Naming patterns reveal a hierarchy within the system of slavery, as demonstrated by baptism and godparenting records, which (re)defined judicial and social statuses in Luanda and differentiated free people from freed and enslaved Africans. As this article demonstrates, Christianity, slavery and the Atlantic slave trade were intimately connected in Luanda.

Keywords:
Baptism; godparenting; slavery; freedom; Luanda