This website provides information on 12,000 enslaved Africans working in Luanda and its hinterland during the era of the so-called legitimate commerce.

Enslaved men, women, and children worked on urban occupations such as domestic services and artisan crafts, as well as tending the land in the cotton and coffee plantations in the interior. Their labour and expertise were crucial for the commercial transition operated in Angola after the era of slave exports. They alone knew the sources of wax; how to collect ivory; and the best techniques to grow cotton and coffee in a land often affected by draughts.

Slave registers produced in Angola during the second half of the nineteenth century provide name, sex, occupation, place of origin, and body marks for the enslaved as well as name, sex, and place of residence of masters. Although a growing body of literature has analysed the economic transition, information on the labourers is still scarce. The website aims to fill this gap by making the data found in the slave registers available to researchers.