human interest
Aug 22, 2023 | 2:37 PM
Archaeologists have identified a small African island off the west coast of the continent that “embodies the beginnings of the plantation economic system.” According to new research.
Located in the Gulf of Guinea and 150 miles west of Gabon, the island of Sao Tome, controlled by European residents, reportedly “became the first plantation economy” and was “exported to the New World, where We have launched a model that has evolved and expanded. ”
“A lack of research obscures the significance of the islands in the history of the Atlantic world and plantation slavery, but that research focuses primarily on the Caribbean and the Americas,” said the German historian. said in a report published this month in The Newspaper.journal ancient times.
In 1485, the potential for sugar cane, the main crop harvested by slave labor on an island of less than 400 square miles, was investigated.
By 10 years it was fully operational and a robust sugar cane field was first recorded in 1506.
Initially, the island was perceived as a “remote and dangerous island”, suggesting that “early settlements were largely voluntary” and were primarily populated by prisoners and Jews displaced from Portugal. (Sao Tome means Saint Thomas in Portuguese).
Ultimately, it was reconsidered that the island was “a major link between Europe and Africa” and therefore favored for the crop trade.
The first enslaved inhabitants came from mainland coastal Africa.
“By 1517, production was on track,” said researchers from the University of Cologne, who surveyed the site of the Praia Melan sugar factory on the island, which was once active until the 1800s.
“By the 1530s the island had overtaken Madeira as the largest producer of sugar in supplying the European market, but its economic dominance was short-lived.”
![Archaeologists have explored a sugar factory on the island of Sao Tome to investigate its origins.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/praia-melao-8.jpg?w=1024)
![Archaeologists have explored a sugar factory on the island of Sao Tome to investigate its origins.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/praia-melao-8.jpg?w=1024)
At a time when Brazil’s industry was booming, the quality of sugar on the island deteriorated. Eventually, the Sao Tome landowners moved production to hotspots in South America.
In addition to “political instability”, “massive slave revolts” were also the main causes of plantation collapse on the island.
“While the island’s European population dwindles, Creole elites and free blacks consolidate their political and social power, controlling land ownership and trade, especially those heading to Brazilian and Caribbean plantations. did.”
![The small African island name Sao Tome is believed to be the origin of plantation slavery.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/iStock-1465484404.jpg?w=1024)
![The small African island name Sao Tome is believed to be the origin of plantation slavery.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/iStock-1465484404.jpg?w=1024)
The 15th-century sugar trade eventually developed into cocoa and coffee transport in Portuguese-controlled territories by the 1800s. According to the Central Intelligence Agency.
“Independence was achieved in 1975, but democratic reforms were not implemented until the late 1980s. The country held its first free elections in 1991.” It is recognized as a Portuguese-speaking country as Sao Tome and Principe.
Current exports are primarily gas turbines, cocoa beans, aircraft parts, steel products, and chocolate, with the CIA reporting an estimated $75 million annual market for the county.
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