Social Networks and the Formation of an African Atlantic: The Upper Guinea Coast, Cape Verde, and the Spanish Caribbean, 1450 – 1600

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the personal and social networks of free and enslaved black Africans across different geographic and social contexts from the years 1450 – 1600. Through an examination of some of the earliest records on Africans in the Atlantic world, this dissertation uses social network analysis as a means of interpreting how black people fit into the patchwork of actors that connected West Africa, Iberia, and the New World. My study begins on the coast of West Africa, where I argue that elite Africans utilized their social standing to develop long-distance connections with European monarchs as a means of sustaining or expanding political power – a longstanding strategy in West African history. Further, I find that the structure of the relationships between West Africans and Europeans created space for groups of Portuguese traders to facilitate trade and resources between them, placing those traders in a socially and commercially advantageous position relative to their European peers. In addition, my research shows that free and enslaved black people in the early Atlantic world could live any number of lives depending upon the size, structure, and composition of their social network – those relationships between them and their communities framed the circumstances around them. In addition, free and enslaved black people operated in social networks in which the power dynamic frequently worked against them, and negative relationships could have devastating consequences. Further, the bonds between individuals within a social network can confer resources, and larger networks typically contain a greater reserve of potential supporters. In the case of enslaved black people, this led to more favorable social outcomes such as freedom or manumission and greater social and physical mobility. The potential for support was also an important factor in black people’s decisions to pursue rebellion. Shared bonds needed to be strong and the belief in support and success had to be consistent, without which revolts were unlikely to take place and even more likely to fail.