Happiness and Work

Portuguese Peasants, British Laborers, African Contract Workers, and the Case of São Tomé and Príncipe, 1901–1909

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9370286
AutoresCatherine Higgs (0000-0002-5903-9095, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, autor correspondente)
Ano2014
Volume86
Páginas55-71
Data de publicação2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Labor and Working-Class History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0147-5479 • E-ISSN: 1471-6445
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0147547914000064
OpenAlexW2143109524
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas21

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the allegation that slaves were harvesting cocoa off the west coast of Africa on the Portuguese island colony of São Tomé and Príncipe became an international scandal, not only because slavery had long been outlawed, but also because one of the major purchasers of that cocoa was the Quaker chocolate company, Cadbury Brothers. The Portuguese denied the charge of slavery and claimed that African workers on the islands were not only happier than Portuguese peasants, but also more content than many European workers. This article explores this claim and argues that the conflicting interpretations of what the British called the crisis over “slave cocoa” and the Portuguese called “the English cocoa controversy” can be explained by differing perspectives about work

Allegation · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Happiness · Political science · Portuguese · Work (physics · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Philosophy