Arsénio Pompílio Pompeu de Carpo: the path of a slave-trader in the 19th century

Abstract

The life of Arsénio de Carpo, the «greatest slave-trader of Angola», illustrates various aspects of the path of slave traffickers, namely the instability of their position, the speed at which they grew wealthy and the hardships of their fall. And, it also illustrates facets surrounding the organisation of trafficking that allow us to understand the history of the abolitionist process in Portugal a little better as well as certain aspects of Angola 's colonial past.