‘These connections are overlooked’: how British companies profited from slavery in Brazil long after abolition

Enslaved people owned by the British mining company St John d’El Rey from 1868 or 1869. Photograph: Thereza Christina Maria collection/Courtesy of the National Library of Brazil.

In 1845 British citizens and companies were already legally prohibited from owning or buying enslaved people overseas, yet that year 385 captives were “transferred” to a British mining company in Brazil named St John d’El Rey.

Despite a global campaign waged by the UK against slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, the move was not technically illegal because the enslaved people were not sold but “rented” – a practice permitted overseas under the 1843 Slave Trade Act.