# Fighting for freedom  
In African societies, whether under Islamic, customary or colonial law, family members could, as was the case in Angola or in Cape Town, pay for an enslaved person's freedom or offer someone else as a replacement. From the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, for example, the political leaders of the Maghreb and North Africa freed enslaved Muslims or negotiated their return in peace treaties. In the Sokoto Caliphate, freedom for Muslims was a State policy (El Hamel, 2013; Ojo, 2013, pp. 75-100; Schwarz, 2015, pp. 59-85; Lofkrantz, 2015).  
The Portuguese colonies of Angola and Benguela featured mechanisms backed by Portuguese and local laws to rescue people from captivity. In 1765, for example, the major-captain of Quilengues purchased Juliana as his slave. A few days later, Juliana's family sent an ambassador for one of the Kilengues territories known as Xaucuri who offered up an enslaved adult to rescue the girl from enslavement (Candido, 2013, pp. 191-92). ${ }^{5}$ In local chieftaincies, there were some local legislations such as the Mucanos, which investigated the conditions of capture and enslavement, providing opportunities for families to rescue their members. However, this was restricted to those with legal knowledge or property (Ferreira, 2011, pp. 111-31). In 1837, for example, Quitéria was kidnapped and sold as an enslaved person to the captain of a slave ship in Benguela. Quitéria had been free, and she belonged to the family of Maria de Barros. The latter went to the boarding site as soon as she learned of the kidnapping and sale. When she arrived, she found Quitéria chained and branded. De Barros entered into last-minute negotiations to restore Quitéria's freedom, offering one of her domestic enslaved males to take her place. ${ }^{6}$ Such rescues were common in the Mediterranean and African societies, in contrast to the Americas.  
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[^0]:    5 Arquivo Nacionais da Torre do Tombo (ANTT), Conde Linhares, L. 90, vol. 1, fl. 142v.- 143v., 21 June 1765.