Lorraine Kessler

“Like most of western Africa, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover São Tomé. When they arrived in 1470, the island was uninhabited. Its warm tropical climate, rich volcanic soil, and abundant rainfall made it the ideal location for a sugar colony. The Portuguese began populating the island in 1486 with slaves from Elmina and the Kongo Kingdom. They set up plantations in the flatlands in the northern part of the island, and the first two sugar mills began operating in 1517. At the height of the sugar boom, the island had almost one hundred thousand slaves and 120 sugar mills. In addition to being the site of the first documented slave ship insurrection in 1532 aboard the Misericordia,”
― Siddharth Kara, The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery