Information may be gathered everywhere. We may find unreliable data in whatever sources ... including books. Naturaly (authors) published conclusions are more subject to doubt than period photos or testimonies; conclusions being left to oneself. As in what concerns this topic subject(s) we are hardly acquainted to those who have witnessed such saga episodes, the available resources being based on chronicles and other written material. On the other hand we have the language barrier. It is obvious that the Portuguese played a lead role in the slavery trade and consequently we find plenty written mterial in the Portuguese Web; actually more than one would expect. However posting it here would not be a feasible option, so one tends to spot useful info in english ... Wikepedia being a contingency.
What i have gathered and posted here was (also) picked from Academia, Museums, Blogs and other sources like Listverse (author Mark Oliver) as some parts extracted from Portuguese material. I have also cared, from among tons of info detected, not to post details which would slip to an area that might be susceptible to excessively widen the scope of the theme in discussion ... so to say.
In the slavery 'branch' of our conversation, personaly i don't mind accepting that, some part of my DNA mitocondrial lineage (fine terms) might be associated to North African Berbere slaves. At a certain stage, the number of slaves in Southern Portugal represented 10% of the population; in 1550, from the 100 000 Lisbon inhabitants, 10 000 were slaves; and in 1620 they still held a 6% score (acc. to Scientific researchers Luisa Pereira and Filipa M.Ribeiro, a fascinating work in my mini library on the Portuguese Genetic Patrimony.
As this discussion continues, i regret having offered my daughter the manilha that i bought at Rainer Daehnhardt's (now closed) shop; i have to see if she accepts to give it back to me ... not excluding a good tip
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The guy in the bronze plate is an European, seeking slaves to trade; not the (African) Pumbeiro (or Pombeiro, from the Kimbundo dialect "kipombo") the one that conducts slaves from the interior to the coast, to trade with European dealers, as we can see in this illustration that is surely close from reality.
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