Coffee on the move: technology, labour and race in the making of a transatlantic plantation system

In the mid 19th century, plantations began to spread across multiple geographies of the Global South. This paper discusses this particular institution and phenomena, by focusing on the Atlantic circulation of coffee plants, agronomic knowledge and racialized labour practices. Combining approaches from mobilities studies and history of technology, it argues that plantations are particularly well suited to grasp the dynamics of displacement and resettling, and to connect the global and the local scales. More specifically, this paper follows a group of men, directly or indirectly involved in the trade of enslaved persons from Angola to Brazil, and analyses what travelled along with them, namely, plantation artifacts, technologies and ideas about labour and race. By doing so, it unveils the hidden links between the Paraíba Valley and São Tomé, and shows how plantations moved between these localities, and adapted to different social and natural environments.