# Returns  
Studies on this subject, throughout its historiography, have been more concerned with the communities as they formed on the West African coast than with the return process itself. The demographic dimension of these returns, the constitution of the groups that made the trips, their motives over time and the conditions under which the trips could be carried out, although present, have received relatively little consideration. Identifying these aspects demands in-depth research using various types of sources, in archives on different sides of the ocean, with a view to gathering information and identifying the relationships between the different sources. ${ }^{6}$ Investigations of this nature can highlight aspects that, up until now, have received very little visibility in the handling of this subject. One of these aspects is the presence of social networks of kinship, religious ties and interdependence of the groups of returnees based on the discovery of connections between them. Such data can be obtained only through cross-referencing information from different sources, ranging from embarkation lists to travellers' personal data, which may be found in marriage and baptism records, as well as inventories and other documents held by the local police (Castillo, 2016). The travel contracts that larger groups of returnees signed with the ships' captains who took them back to Africa, along with their statements setting out the reasons they were asking for support in these endeavours, can reveal the conditions of travel and the justification given when seeking solidarity and support (Lima e Souza, 2008).