In the 1530s, the Portuguese colony of São Tomé was the world’s largest sugar producer. Its monoculture system and reliance on African slave labor made this island close to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea a model for the plantation economic system that spread across the Atlantic to the Americas.
However, this success was short-lived in Sao Tome. Competition with Brazil, in combination with frequent slave insurrections, caused plantation profits to shrink in the early 17th century. For historians, even so, this period is of vital importance.
For the first time, experts from the University of Cologne have studied an archaeological site in São Tomé. Despite its importance to the origins of the modern Atlantic world, research has predominantly focused on the Caribbean and North and South America.
“São Tomé was an important link between Europe and Africa,” the archaeologists say in an article published in the Antiquity magazine, “but the lack of study obscures the significance of this archipelago in the history of the Atlantic world and slavery on plantations.” .
The team led by Dr. M. Dores Cruz is excavating Praia Melão, the largest sugar mill (estate) and sugar estate in São Tomé, dating back to the 16th century and active until the 19th century. The scale of the building reflects the large slave labor force that worked in the main hall, where the mills were operated and the sugar was boiled.
The craftsmanship of the structure is, the researchers explain, the product of enslaved builders. Particularly revealing are the windows of the building, designed to allow a clear view of the areas where the tasks were carried out in order to keep an eye on the workers.
Ceramic sugar molds are common on the site, both scattered on the floor and embedded in the walls. X-ray fluorescence, a technique used to determine the elemental composition of materials, made it possible to determine their origins. In this case, three sherds were analyzed and found to be made in the Aveiro-Ovar region (Portugal), an important center of ceramic production at the time.
“The first settlements on the island were rarely voluntary. They mainly involved degraded (convicts), Jewish children from Portugal and enslaved people from the African coast,” the study authors say.
These findings show how the later applied plantation economic model originated in the Americas and the long-distance connections necessary to facilitate its success. That is why experts call for further studies in less common sites to avoid losing “a crucial heritage”.
“The tropical environment, invasive vegetation, economic development, and potential human impacts increase the risk of site destruction,” the study authors state, “making protection efforts and further archaeological investigations critical to its preservation.”
