Landing African captives and medical routinesat the Port of Recife, Brazil prior to 1831

Abstract

The Provedoria-Mor da Saúde of Pernambuco (Brazil), the government
agency which took care of public health in Pernambuco, was created in
1810. Thereafter, slave ships that arrived at Recife were visited by health
agents who verified if the recently arrived enslaved people carried diseases
which were considered contagious, according to the 19th century medical
sciences. Only those who carried the said maladies were sent to the Santo
Amaro Leprosarium to be treated. Once they were healed, they were
returned to their owners to be sold. The employees of that health agency
examined slave ships that carried more than 47 thousand people to Recife.
Their reports help us to understand how the slave trade was carried out in
a major Brazilian harbor, before it was declared illegal in 1831.