Manoel Pinto da Fonseca (10 October 1804 – 20 October 1855) was a 19th-century businessman described as "the most notorious slave dealer in all Brazil".[1] His business was a "highly organized mercantile house capable of operating on four continents" and may have had up to 50 employees.[2]
Biography
Da Fonseca was born in the Porto region of Portugal in 1804.[3] He entered the business around 1837 in company with his brothers.[4] According to a British report based on a declaration by Da Fonseca, his profits in 1844 were £150,000.[4] He trafficked enslaved people from Angola and the coast near the Congo River.[2] In 1844 or 1845, Da Fonseca bought the slaving brig
Uncas from Cuban shippers who had in turn bought it from American slave trader
William H. Williams of Washington, D.C.[5]Porpoise and
Kentucky were also Da Fonseca's ships.[6]
Da Fonseca's major competitors in Brazil were
José Bernardino de Sá and
Tomás da Costa Ramos; all three hired U.S.-flagged ships and American captains and sailors during what was known as the "contraband era".[7]
Da Fonseca was deported to Portugal in 1851.[2] He died in Paris in 1855.[3]
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abMesquita, João Marcos (2022). ""COMERCIANTE PAR EXCELLENCE": O MERCADO ILEGAL DE ESCRAVOS DE MANOEL PINTO DA FONSECA". HISTÓRIAS DE ESCRAVIDÃO E PÓS-EMANCIPAÇÃO NO ATLÂNTICO (SÉCULOS XVIII AO XX) (in Brazilian Portuguese). pp. 123–141.
ISBN978-65-89503-41-5.
Ferreira, Roquinaldo (1996), "Chapter 6", Dos sertões ao Atlântico: tráfico ilegal de escravos e comércio lícito em Angola, 1830–1860 [From the Hinterlands to the Atlantic: Illegal Slave Trade and Legal Commerce in Angola, 1830–1860] (in Brazilian Portuguese), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro