Liberated Enslaved and St Helena

On 7 September, The Times reported the reburial of 325 enslaved Africans on St Helena. It is a story that can be traced through The Times. In the nineteenth century, St Helena was vital as a shipping station for the British Navy and Merchant Marine. The British Navy tried to intercept slaving ships taking enslaved Africans from the African continent, mainly to Brazil. Those liberated were taken to St Helena, and quarantined, where weak and distressed, many died. There was a Vice-Admiralty Court there that tried the (mainly Portuguese) slavers. Those liberated slaves who survived were relocated as free labourers, although some remained on the island. As individuals they came form all over Africa, but such genomic research as proved possible suggests that many of these men and women came from Mozambique and Angola, which is perhaps to be expected. See an Article in Nature.