9 APERJ, Fundo SPP, Collection 166, document 12 A, Letter by Claudino do Couto sent to the deputy of Campos Police Force, 2 November 1848.  
of Benguela in which slag was found in the bases of the cabins. ${ }^{10}$ This practice was ethnographically observed among the Fipa people from Tanzania, who added slag fragments to their homes, believing that this would bring fertility and protection (Blakely, 2006, p. 121). In this case, the Santa Clara senzalas may have been filled with these items in order to invoke spiritual assistance for the protection of the space's occupants, thus reflecting the upholding of cosmologies of African origin related to iron and to the spiritual power of ironworkers.