Possible 19th-Century Slave Ship Found Near Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO STATE, BRAZIL—ARTNews reports that the possible wreckage of a nineteenth-century slave ship has been found off the coast of Brazil in the area of Angra dos Reis. As many as 5.5 million enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil between 1540 and the 1860s. Researchers from the AfrOrigens Institute, the Fluminense Federal University, the Federal University of Sergipe, and their colleagues think this ship may have been used by slave trader Nathanial Gordon to transport some 500 enslaved Africans from Mozambique to Brancuí in 1851. At the time, the slave trade was illegal in Brazil, and some suspect that Gordon sank the vessel to evade police. Gordon was eventually captured and hanged in the United States in 1862 for violating the Piracy Law of 1820. To read about enslaved Africans in a Brazilian mining town, go to "Off the Grid: Ouro Preto, Brazil."