Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

by Michael Harriot

When Henry heard about the sale, he was no longer interested in the ostrich eggs, the seal pelts, or the spices; he wanted to know more about this people-trading thing. But Henry hadn’t cleared this practice with the church and didn’t know what the pope would think. Sure, they had “enslaved” Moors, Jews, and non-Christians during the Crusades, but that was a military thing—not a pure cash grab. When explaining his rationale to the church, Prince Henry would argue that, technically, he wasn’t an “enslaver” because true Christians would never do that. Instead, he allowed Portuguese “missionaries” to “save” Africans by converting them to Christianity. The argument worked. By 1446, more than thirty Portuguese ships had filed applications with Prince Henry for people-stealing licenses. In 1455, Pope Nicholas V granted Henry a monopoly on the African human market—as long as they baptized their cargo.3 Henry had finally found gold in Africa.