Eleven African Captives Landed at Lagos

1442

A Portuguese caravel returned to Lagos with the first recorded consignment of sub-Saharan African captives specifically acquired as slaves. Prince Henry took his share and paid his share of papal benediction. Over the next sixty years the trickle would become a stream, then a river, then the Middle Passage. A papal bull soon granted Portugal the right to enslave non-Christians, providing the legal framework for the Atlantic slave trade.