Rosa de Carvalho Alvarenga

Rosa de Carvalho Alvarenga , also known as Dona Rosa , Nha Rosa or Rosa de Cacheu (* 1780s in Cacheu , Portuguese Guinea ; † 1860s there) was an important merchant and slave trader in the Portuguese colony of Guinea , now Guinea-Bissau . She was the mother of Honório Barreto , one of the most important Portuguese colonial officials of Portuguese Guinea in the 19th century.

Life

origin

Rosa de Carvalho Alvarenga was born in the port city of Cacheu in the Portuguese colony of Guinea in the 1780s . Dona Rosa grew up in her native town, which at the time was one of the most important trading centers for the slave trade on the Guinean coast.

Her family was heavily involved in the trade as well as in the administration of the territory occupied by Portugal and had owned goods in the Cacheu / Casamance region since the first Portuguese fortresses in the 1640s . Dona Rosa's father, Manuel de Carvalho Alvarenga , came from a Cape Verdean family who had moved to the mainland in the 1700s and served in the colony as harbor master of the ports of Cacheu, Farim and Ziguinchor ; he himself was the garrison leader of Ziguinchor. Dona Rosa's brother, Francisco de Carvalho Alvarenga , was an important merchant in Ziguinchor. Dona Rosa's aunt (or half-sister), Josefa de Carvalho Alvarenga , was a richly married Cape Verde who owned large estates and many slaves on Cape Verde. The origin of Dona Rosa on her mother's side is not known, but it is assumed that she came from the Bainounka people , a population group with numerous trading families.

Marriage to João Barreto

In the 1800s - probably around 1802 - she married João Pereira Barreto Júnior (* 1772), son of a Cape Verdean priest and a Guinean slave. Baretto had worked his way up and was already a high-ranking official in Cacheu at the time, and had also founded a trading house. With Barreto Dona Rosa had two children, Maria Pereira Baretto (* 1808) and Honório Pereira Barreto (* 1813). The marriage of the two also had an economic background, as it linked two important trading families of the colony. Two years after their wedding, João Pereira Barreto Júnior was appointed Capitão-Mor (administrator) of Cacheu in 1804 and was highly regarded in the colony as well as in Cape Verde and Lisbon.

Dona Rosa herself was regarded as an experienced and capable trader who maintained particularly good relationships with the peoples in the interior of the colony - while her husband took care of trade relations with Portugal, Brazil and Cape Verde. Both owned several ships that were also involved in the intercontinental slave trade.

Bloom of the family business

In 1829 Dona Rosa's husband João Pereira Barreto Júnior suddenly died. Dona Rosa then brought her son Honório, who had been sent to study at the University of Coimbra , back to Guinea to run the family business with him. The jointly managed trading fortunes of the two were considered extremely successful, so that mother and son dominated the trade in the Cacheu / Ziguinchor region until well into the 1850s. Dona Rosa knew how to master the fortunes of the intercontinental slave trade in such a way that she gave captains precise instructions for the crossings to America in order to bypass the coastal patrols to deter the slave traders.

Dona Rosa maintained close and good relationships with peoples and groups such as the Pepel , Bainounka and Felupe . This enabled her to limit her trade not only to slaves: In addition to important information about smuggling routes, she was also one of the first to grow rice on the Saral River in the region - which could also be used as a smuggler's route. Later she also had plantations ( morgadios ) on the Cape Verdean island of Santiago , so that her family business could also conduct its trade in slaves, rice, cotton, tobacco and other things on this island.

In 1834 Dona Rosa's son, Honório, was appointed Capitão-Mor (administrator) of Cacheu for the first time , and a little later, from 1837 to 1839, was appointed Capitão-Mor de Bissau , the highest colonial office in Portuguese territory. It is believed that he was able to ascend primarily because of his mother's reputation and skills. Honório knew how to skillfully combine political diplomacy with his mother's commercial transactions, so that the family business flourished again from the 1840s. Honório Barreto received further managerial mandates : 1840–1841 again Capitão-Mor de Bissau , and 1846–1848 and 1852 to about 1854 two mandates as administrator of Cacheu.

Around 1850, Rosa Alvarenga's trading business had practically achieved a monopoly in the Cacheu / Ziguinchor region. According to the slave census of 1856, Dona Rosa owned by far the most slaves, more than 15 percent of the total.

Death of the son, death of the mother

In 1859 Dona Rosa's son Honório died unexpectedly, which took a lot of trouble. She also died shortly afterwards. The heirs could not stop the decline of the family business, but the Alvarenga and Barreto descendants continued to be important names in the politics and trade of Portuguese Guinea.

bibliography

IV.1. Traders as mothers: Rosa de Carvalho Alvarenga , p. 201ff., In: Philip J. Havik: Silences and Soundbites: The Gendered Dynamics of Trade and Brokerage in the Pre-colonial Guinea Bissau Region , Lit Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3825877094
Slaves and Rice: Dona Rosa , pp. 314-319, in: Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers and Joseph Calder Miller: Women and Slavery - Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic , Volume 1, Ohio University Press, Athens , 2007

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Philip J. Havik: Carvalho Alvarenga, Rosa . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . tape 2 . Oxford Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 38 f .
^ ^A ^b Richard Andrew Lobban: Historical dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau . 4th edition. Lanham, ISBN 978-0-8108-8027-6 , pp. 84 f .
^ ^A ^b ^c Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers and Joseph Calder Miller: Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic . In: Women Slavery . tape 1 . Ohio University Press, Athens 2007, ISBN 978-0-8214-1723-2 , pp. 314 f .

personal data
SURNAME	Carvalho Alvarenga, Rosa de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dona Rosa; Nha Rosa; Rosa de Cacheu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Merchant and slave trader in the Portuguese colony of Guinea
DATE OF BIRTH	between 1780 and 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cacheu , Portuguese Guinea
DATE OF DEATH	between 1860 and 1869
Place of death	Cacheu , Portuguese Guinea

[DAB-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Philip J. Havik: Carvalho Alvarenga, Rosa . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . tape 2 . Oxford Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 38 f .

[:0-2] A ^b Richard Andrew Lobban: Historical dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau . 4th edition. Lanham, ISBN 978-0-8108-8027-6 , pp. 84 f .

[:1-3] A ^b ^c Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers and Joseph Calder Miller: Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic . In: Women Slavery . tape 1 . Ohio University Press, Athens 2007, ISBN 978-0-8214-1723-2 , pp. 314 f .