First Public Slave Auction at Lagos, Portugal
In August 1444 a fleet of six caravels landed 235 enslaved Africans at Lagos in the Algarve—the first large-scale sale of African enslaved people in Europe. The chronicler Gomes Eanes de Zurara recorded the scene in detail, noting the wailing of families being separated and Henry the Navigator's presence at the auction, receiving his royal fifth. The event established the commercial and institutional framework for the Portuguese slave trade and marked the beginning of a practice that would, over four centuries, forcibly remove some 12.5 million Africans from their homelands.
- Year: 1444 CE
- Category: Social
