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Breves reflexões àcerca do estado actual do trafico da escravatura, em relação ao progresso da civilização europea

Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. British Library.

Reflections Slave Trade European Civilization British Portuguese Abolition

This unusual, extremely pro-British pamphlet argues that the abolition of the slave trade was the major issue facing Europe in the nineteenth century. The pamphlet describes the continuation of the slave trade as a breach in an otherwise shared civilization and morality, praising Britain as an "apostle" of abolitionism abroad (2) that had generously sacrificed a successful trade in slaves for the benefit of the rest of Europe. It calls slave trading a "crime perpetrated against humanity" (6), damaging those countries that continued to engage in it, as well as Europe as a whole, and calls for a new dawn of enlightened abolitionism to unite France, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Germany and all the other Nations of Europe (2). The text also suggests that abolishing the slave trade would guarantee the future of Portugal's colonies abroad, and strengthen relations with Britain.

Attributed to Sebastian Charles Rosas (editor of the English language journal The Lisbon Mail in the late 1830s) by João Marques, The Sounds of Silence (2006), 143.