The Fortunato da Costa Family

This paper reconstructs the history of the Fortunato da Costa family, from the first appearance of its constituting members in Portugal, during the Napoleonic invasion of 1808, through the nation’s political turmoil of the late 1820s and early 1830s, the family’s relocation to São Tomé and Príncipe around 1838-1839, amidst significant Creole-metropolitan tensions on the islands, as well as “intrusions” from the British Anti-Slave Trade Squadron, to its settlement in Angola during an intense period of illegal slave trading and the transition to legitimate commerce, until 1859, when the last known member passed away. The story of the Fortunato da Costa family is an odyssey stretching over half a century, marked by some of the most important processes in Atlantic history. Negotiating these historical developments was anything but easy sailing: in fact, for some it created a series of contradictions, at times leading to the kind of dark moments that families often face. Reconstructing the lives of this unique family thus also presents us with a particularly striking example of the human condition in all its frailties, with a story that is far from unilinear.