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Research ArticleArticle

Gender, Foodstuff Production and Trade in Late-Eighteenth Century Luanda

VANESSA S. OLIVEIRA
African Economic History, January 2015, 43 (1) 57-81; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/aeh.43.1.57
VANESSA S. OLIVEIRA
†Vanessa S. Oliveira is a Ph.D. candidate in History at York University. Her dissertation, “The Donas of Luanda, ca. 1773–1870: From Atlantic Slave Trading to ‘Legitimate Commerce,’” focuses on the Portuguese Colony of Angola. She has published articles in the , and as well as book chapters in edited volumes in Brazil and Portugal.
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Abstract

African and Luso-African individuals who possessed land and slave labor benefited from the opportunities generated by foodstuff trade in West Central Africa. This study explores the participation of both men and women in the production and trade of foodstuffs in late-eighteenth century Luanda, the capital of the Portuguese colony of Angola, with a particular focus on manioc flour, an essential staple in the diet of the town’s residents. Drawing upon registers produced by scribes of the public market (Terreiro Público) and license requests to engage in retail trade, this study suggests that the supply of foodstuffs was an alternative for individuals who did not have enough capital to enter the slave trade. In the context of the insecurity embedded in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, supplying foodstuffs became a safe option that attracted the capital of well-established and smaller traders. On the other hand, the retail trade of the markets and streets created room for the poor and even the enslaved. Through their participation in trade activities, free end enslaved women were able to increase their household earnings and, presumably, establish a degree of independence in relation to men.

  • © 2015 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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African Economic History: 43 (1)
African Economic History
Vol. 43, Issue 1
1 Jan 2015
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Gender, Foodstuff Production and Trade in Late-Eighteenth Century Luanda
VANESSA S. OLIVEIRA
African Economic History Jan 2015, 43 (1) 57-81; DOI: 10.3368/aeh.43.1.57

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Gender, Foodstuff Production and Trade in Late-Eighteenth Century Luanda
VANESSA S. OLIVEIRA
African Economic History Jan 2015, 43 (1) 57-81; DOI: 10.3368/aeh.43.1.57
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    • Abstract
    • Luanda in the Late-Eighteenth Century
    • The Supply of Manioc Flour
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