HELP!! BYU AP World History!


And one more time, write the main idea then describe and analyze the four contextual elements from this more modern source.

“In another letter of 1526 Afonso provided additional information that allows us to reconstruct social categories more clearly. In one part of the letter, Afonso referred to ‘nossos filhos, parentes e naturaes’ (‘our children, relatives, and natives [citizens]’), while elsewhere in the same letter he complained that slave traders were taking away his ‘naturaes forros’ (‘free citizens’). Afonso’s language leaves no doubt that Kongo had a group of freeborn commoners. In fact, in a 1529 letter that King João III of Portugal wrote to Afonso in response to complaints Afonso had made about the illegal enslavement of freeborn Kongos, the king referred to ‘naturaes ou de fora’ (‘citizens or outsiders [foreigners]’) in summarizing the complaint that Afonso had made about who could be enslaved and who could not be. ...

“Indeed, the majority of the slaves Kongo exported during Afonso’s reign and for the rest of the sixteenth century were foreign captives obtained from wars Kongo kings and their Portuguese allies waged against the neighboring Mbundu kingdom of Ndongo or in the region of Pamzelungu across the mouth of the Zaire River, as well as the Anzico region around the Malebo Pool (formerly Stanley Pool) on the river. ... Moreover, in a 1529 letter written by the Portuguese king, João III, to Afonso, João noted that he had heard that ‘no slave ever leaves the country [Kongo]’ and went on to add that he had been told that slaves ‘are ordered to be bought outside.’ ...

“Afonso facilitated the trade in slaves by establishing secure markets where Portuguese factors could conduct their business and where his representatives could sell war captives to them. Thus Afonso could continue selling foreign captives and still respect local customs about who could be enslaved.

“Kongo did support a slave population, however, for Afonso noted in his 1514 letter that he had retained some of the slaves he had captured. Besides the foreign captives whom Afonso held as slaves, he and later sixteenth-century kings and other members of the monarchy also held as slaves people born in Kongo who had been condemned for various kinds of crimes. Here, however, rules existed that limited opportunities for the enslavement of freeborn Kongos as well as restricted their sale. ...

“Kongo also had rules that restricted the selling of Kongo subjects. For example in 1526 Afonso wrote to the Portuguese king, João III, noting that the numbers of Portuguese traders bringing goods into Kongo had increased and that they were selling their goods directly to unscrupulous Kongo noblemen who no longer relied on him to supply the imports. He complained that some of his vassals were conniving with the Portuguese and were enslaving Kongo subjects, even noblemen. ...

“The dilemma that the Kongo leadership faced was that, in order to enforce the laws concerning who could be enslaved, Kongo needed to remain a strong state. From the 1590s, however, the Kongo penchant for civil wars weakened the monarchy.”

– From Linda M. Heywood, “Slavery and Its Transformation in the Kingdom of Kongo,” The Journal of African History 50, no. 1 (2009): 4-6. Ms. Heywood is a professor of African History and the History of the African Diaspora at Boston University. As she wrote, “This article was first presented in 2007 at a conference held at the University College of London in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the ending of the Atlantic slave trade.”