Faculty Seminar: Forced Labor by Europeans and the Prison of Luanda, Angola, 1881-1932

Tim Coates, College of Charleston, will present his sabbatical lecture. In the late 1800’s, two distinct and seemingly unrelated movements came together in Portugal: penal reform and New Imperialism. In this case, penal reform spread across the US and Western Europe, reaching Portugal in the form of new ideas of reforming prisoners through sentences requiring reflection and ultimately work. Linked to the European scrabble for colonies in Africa, Portugal used its convict population in two new prisons established in its two largest colonies of Angola and Mozambique. This presentation will focus on the larger and more important of the two in Luanda, Angola. This prison was opened in 1881 and it received convicts from Portugal as well as from the other African colonies. Convicts were leased out for their labor and worked all over Angola, but largely in Luanda, until the prison closed in 1932.
When Fri Mar 18 3pm – 5pm Eastern Time
Where Addlestone Library, Room 227, 205 Calhoun Street

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