Slave “Corrections” in Luanda, Angola from 1836 to 1869

Abstract

This paper uses thousands of cases of imprisonment published under the police section of a weekly gazette entitled Boletim Oficial do Governo da Província de Angola to explore the connections between slavery and the “birth of the prison” in Luanda, the capital of the Portuguese colony of Angola between 1836 and 1869. It demonstrates that as the colonial administration gradually abolished the institution of slavery in the mid-nineteenth century, masters and mistresses sent thousands of captives to jail for “correction,” which could include imprisonment, beatings, and forced labour. By focusing on “correction” cases, this paper problematizes the dichotomy between pre-modern and modern types of punishment and demonstrates that the prison in Luanda reinforced the violence of the slaveholding class.