The History of the Slave Trade in the City of Lisbon: Spaces of Visibility and Invisibility

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Uncovering of the World of the São José Paquete d’África, a Portuguese Slave Ship", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Lisbon is full of sites celebrating the Portuguese former empire: from the Empire Square and the Discoveries Pattern in Belém, to the city’s toponymy celebrating the empire’s heroes, the public space is a constant reminder of a glorious past. Contrasting with the high visibility of this past, is the invisibility of its dark side, namely, the slave-trade. Portugal was the nation most involved in the transatlantic slave trade, however, currently there is not a single site in the city of Lisbon that memorializes the enslaved, or that even refers to the crucial role of Portugal in the enslavement of millions of Africans. Using the paradigmatic story of a Lisbon slave trader and his (invisible) estate in the city as a point of entry, this presentation explores sites of visibility / invisibility as markers of a selective memory and amnesia that punctuates public discourses about Portugal’s past and its enduring legacies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Uncovering of the World of the São José Paquete d’África, a Portuguese Slave Ship   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow