Ana Joaquina dos Santos e Silva (1788–1859), was a Euro-African '' Nhara'' slave trader,

money lender In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that de ...

, and planter in

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

.Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong,
Dictionary of African Biography, Volym 1–6
' She was the perhaps biggest slave trader in Angola, which traded with

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

during the 1830s, and financed the expedition of Joaquim Rodrigues Graça.

Biography

Ana Joaquina dos Santos e Silva was a member of the privileged

Afro-Portuguese Afro-Portuguese, African-Portuguese, or Black Portuguese are Portuguese citizens or residents of Portugal with total or partial ancestry from any of the Sub-Saharan ethnic groups of Africa. Most of those perceived as Afro-Portuguese trace their an ...

class who had a leading position within the business community of Portuguese

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

, where

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Europeans consisted of a mere thousand people at the time. She was one of the leading slave traders of the booming slave trade between Angola and the

Empire of Brazil The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pe ...

in the 1830s- and 40s. The slave trade was formally banned in 1836, but continued in practice in Angola, where the economy was dominated by it. Ana dos Santos e Silva owned several

plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

for

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and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

, and a three stories palace residence in Luanda, which later became a museum. When Brazil banned slave trade in 1850 and the trade discontinued in practice, she had established herself as a successful banker, investor and financier of merchants, authorities and transport business.

References

1788 births 1859 deaths 19th-century businesswomen African slave traders 19th-century African businesspeople Plantation owners 19th-century women landowners African slave owners Women slave owners {{Africa-bio-stub