#  "The Ethiopian Redeemed" and the Circulation of Antislavery Ideas 

 



Célia M. Azevedo

My aim is to approach the issue of the circulation of emerging antislavery ideas on both sides of the Atlantic during the eighteenth century. I shall analyze a book by the Portuguese priest Rocha, *The Ethiopian Redeemed, pledged, nurtured, corrected, educated, and emancipated*, which was published in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1758. Rocha contributed to the formation of an antislavery ideology by raising three points: the illegitimacy of the African slave trade; the ideal of preparing the slaves for freedom in order to convert them into sober, self-disciplined workers; the emancipation of the slave women's new-born. Similarities between Rocha's proposal and those of other abolitionists such as Granville Sharp, Baron of Bessner, and the Pennsylvania Quakers will be explored.

**\[WP # 00031\]**