A última rota atlântica: o comércio interno de escravizados rumando os sertões da Bahia setecentista, c.1759 - c.1798

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the functioning of the system of redistribution of African and Creole enslaved to the hinterlands of the captaincy of Bahia during the second half of the eighteenth century. Through the analysis of a set of passport guides covering the shipments of captives traded from the City of Bahia (Salvador) to the domestic market of Portuguese America, this study seeks to understand how the supply of African slave markets present in the countryside of Bahia was accomplished through redistribution process operationalized by multiple commercial agents. Traversing the main sertanejo routes (occasional and regular agents) or taking captive groups (traders of the Bahian market square), such agents were responsible for the execution of small tasks, which were responsible for the transfer of significant sums of enslaved to the Sertões of the eighteenth century Bahia. Thus, from the analysis of passport records dated 1752-1772 and 1778-1798, from the existing documentary series for the period, along with the access to the transatlantic slave trade database, it is the aim of this study to understand redistribution as an extension of the transatlantic enslaved trade, paying special attention to the activities of the mercantile agents, who are responsible for connecting the hinterlands of Bahia to the Atlantic slave mercantile system through internal trafficking, understood here as the last Atlantic route.