King Afonso I of Kongo Protests Portuguese Slave Trade

King Afonso I of the Kongo Kingdom (in present-day Angola and Congo) wrote a series of letters to King João III of Portugal in 1526, explicitly protesting the devastating effects of the slave trade on his kingdom. He described how Portuguese and African traders were kidnapping nobles, free people, and even children of noble families. He demanded Portugal stop the trade or strictly regulate it. His letters represent one of the most detailed and powerful contemporary African denunciations of the Atlantic slave trade. Portugal ignored his appeals. The Kongo Kingdom's population and political stability were steadily destroyed by the trade over the following centuries.