For a time, the return of freedpersons from Brazil to West Africa was considered by historiography as a process with a similar general character throughout its implementation period. Some more recent studies indicate the existence of phases in these migratory movements. From the eighteenth century until around the 1820 s, the connections operated throughout the area covered by the Atlantic slave trade and were characterized by journeys made chiefly as individuals, or in small groups. From 1830, and especially after 1835, the groups became larger and their movement was prompted by the persecution and more restrictive conditions faced by freedpersons in Brazil. After the end of the slave trade to Brazil, the journeys were made in both large and small groups. The reasons behind them reveal both the intention to settle on the African coast in  
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[^0]:    6 It moved in this direction, bringing quantitative and qualitative data, for example in the pioneering work of Verger, the thesis of Monica Lima e Souza and the article by Lisa Earl Castillo (Verger, 1987; Lima e Souza, 2008; Castillo, 2016).  
a privileged position as partners working with the new European interests and the desire to return for personal and religious reasons - in the latter case, with the possibility of leaving to eventually return (Castillo, 2016; Lima e Souza, 2009, pp. 59-74).