The Boa Entrada Plantations - S Thomé, Portuguese West Africa - 'La Perle Des Colonies Portugaises' ( São Tomé )

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1907 1st edition. 63pp + plates to rear. Fair/None. Hard green boards with a little rubbing to edges/spine, some soiling/mottling, a little damp marking. Contents clean and tight but for minor soiling, some browning to endpapers. B&W photo plates to rear. A study of the poor working conditions of the labourers of the Boa Entrada Plantations of São Tomé, an African plantation society in the Gulf of Guinea, at the start of the 20th century. The island was settled by the Portuguese in the 15th century. The island was ideal for growning sugar cane and, with the use of African slaves, many from Cape Verde, the Portuguese turned the island into Africa's leading exporter of sugar. So successful was the colony at São Tomé that it became a blueprint for the slave plantations of the West Indies. Slavery was not abolished in São Tomé until 1875, and this book was written only 32 years later, by which time production on the plantations had largely switched to cocoa. The working conditions of the workers, who were almost exclusively descended from the slaves, were very poor, and this book was written to highlight those conditions and to encourage a more benevolent regime. São Tomé achieved independence from Portugal in 1975. Very Scarcein this edition. Book includes a compliment slip from the author and translator and two leaflets giving details of the publisher's other books about Africa and China. Seller Inventory # 006941

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