São Tomé

São Tomé is a mountainous island near the equator in the Gulf of Guinea. Portuguese settlers made it a center of sugar cultivation, importing enslaved Africans to work plantations and mills. The town of São Tomé became the seat of the colony, with a cathedral and a fort overlooking its harbor. Its wealth rested on forced labor, and resistance shaped the island's history as surely as the commerce that carried its sugar overseas.

Álvaro Caminha established a Portuguese settlement in 1493. During the sixteenth century São Tomé became a major sugar producer, drawing captives from places including Benin, Kongo and Angola. Some fled the plantations for the forested interior and formed communities in the mountains. In 1595 an enslaved man named Amador led a major uprising against colonial rule; plantations were attacked and the revolt was eventually suppressed. Four years later a Dutch fleet captured and sacked the town. Sugar production declined as Brazilian plantations expanded, but the island remained involved in Atlantic trade in enslaved people.