In the eyes of many historians in later generations, the initiator of the modern black slave trade was the evil Portuguese.

In 1441, a Portuguese expedition led by Antao Gonsalves and Nuno Tristao plundered 10 African black men along the coast near Cape Brown and brought them back to Lisbon for sale. This was the beginning of the four-century modern black slave trade in Europe and the United States.

Portugal was the first country to conduct slave trade, and Britain was the largest country to trade slave trade in the world. In the whole of Europe, except for a few countries such as Austria, Poland and Russia, almost all European countries and the United States have participated in this evil activity one after another.

But in fact, whether Portuguese or British, the black slave trade in Europe only inherited the quick way for Arab merchants to get rich. During the 700 years when the Moors of black descent occupied the Iberis Peninsula, they also used millions of peninsula residents (later Spanish and Portuguese) as slaves and trafficked to North Africa and the Middle East.

No matter which country, the primitive accumulation of capital is always dirty and full of blood. It either strives to oppress the people of the country or colonize and plunder the outside world. The two trade-offs and wise superiors will tend to the latter choice. Although the time travelers in the previous life were not loyal believers of social Darwinism, he strongly agreed with Herbert Spencer's famous saying: "Survival of nature, and survival of the fittest." Throughout the history of human development, it is a whole process of relying on the strong to bully the weak and swallowing the small with the big.

...

Diego's grandfather was a black slave, so the son of old Diego and his son were all black slaves. Ten years ago, Diego, who was only 16 years old, was sold to a grape plantation near the village of Mosil by his original owner in eastern Portugal. There are scattered grape vine terraces here, and the surrounding dense oak forests, wine fields and houses scattered among the forests, forming a unique landscape.

However, the charming pastoral scenery cannot reduce Diego's hard work for 15 hours a day. Fortunately, he inherited his father's tall and strong physique, with round and powerful shoulders. Ten years ago, he was the only one left in the dozen male black slaves who were bought into the planting manor with Diego. Now he is the only one left. The other black slaves were either dying of illness, exhaustion, or being too lazy to be sold to other places by the owner of the manor. Only Diego, who is strong and hardworking, has always lived fortunately in Mosil Village.

When he is in a good mood, the owner of the manor will also make generous moves to the slaves. Three years ago, the generous owner gave Diego a female slave named Miranda. Miranda, who has been cleaning the room in the manor, is a mixed-race boy with a good figure and appearance. Before, Miranda actually acted as the master's sex slave in the study, but she was tired of playing, so she gave it to Diego.

However, Diego did not care about these things, but was grateful to his master's grace, because he had a loving wife, and one year later, the two had a lovely child. Whenever he had dinner, Miranda, who had worked in the master's study for five years, would take out several ragged French novels he had collected and teach his smart husband to learn French by the dim stove. Although the family of three was still a black slave without personal freedom, life was as usual. Whenever Diego returned home, the warm family affection he received was enough to drive away all the hardships in his daytime work.

A beautiful life is always so short. Two months ago, Miranda secretly taught Diego to learn French by a white supervisor. After reporting it to the owner, the owner of the manor was furious and ordered the female black slave Miranda and her son to be sold to slave traders in the city of Evora. The white supervisor also asked Diego to be whipped on his back 30 times in public and imprisoned him in a water prison. Because in the white world, black slaves, especially male black slaves, must not read and read, otherwise, they will be a defilement of European civilization.

Lost in the dark water prison, Diego, who had lost his wife and children, was already desperate and was ready to end his life. But at some point, the water prison was opened, and several black slaves who had been with him rushed in and rescued the dying Diego.

Three days later, when Diego gradually woke up from his coma, he learned from everyone that their owners and all the white people nearby had fled the planting estates a week ago. Now, if there are only hundreds of black slaves guards in the big grape plantation and nearby villages and towns, it is said that it is because the French are coming.

The French did come, but they were late all the way. The second week after Diego woke up, 200 French cavalrymen in blue uniforms surrounded a convertible four-wheeled carriage and drove into the planting estate where Diego was located.

This planting manor located next to Mosil's village is composed of neat rectangular oak houses, with flat roofs and a unique courtyard, which surround each other around a beautiful villa with a three-story, white stone building. The oak house belongs to black slaves, and the ones with small courtyards are enjoyed by white supervisors, while the gorgeous decoration is the daily residence of the owner of the manor.

Beyond the villa and wooden house, there are hilly mountains with high and low undulating and rocky rocky mountains. There is a clear stream in the middle, and there are vines on both sides of the stream and on the nearby terraces. The grapes are now green and immature, and it only takes another month to be the season for grapes to mature. By then, the branches hanging all over the mountains are full of attractive purple and red grapes.

Without much effort, the French soldiers drove the slaves who were as gentle as little lambs to a clearing ground in front of the manor villa. Then, a person who looked like an officer raised his body from the seat of the convertible carriage. He loudly spoke in skillful Portuguese to the hundreds of slaves present, and solemnly announced: According to the provisions of the Legal Department of the Desay Division, the fugitive owner of the manor refused to provide taxes and military supplies for the occupying army, and all the property in his name was awarded to the Duke of Hruna. The great and kind Duke has always hated the evil slave trade, and will not raise slaves, all...

"After signing the liberation decree or pressing the print, you will gain freedom in life!" When Lieutenant Jacques finished speaking, hundreds of male and female black slaves present did not react at all. They just stayed motionlessly. No one spoke, and their eyes were still confused and helpless, as if they were listening to a slave owner's loud speech in the slave market, and the white thugs who had once surrounded them were replaced by French soldiers in dark blue uniforms.

"Damn, these niggers are always worthy of being slaves!" Tias, beside Jacques, complained in a low voice again. In fact, in the past two days, they have "visited" more than 10 black slave plantations and read more than 10 decrees to liberate black slaves in public, but in the end it was so silent, and none of the liberated people jumped out and cheered loudly, celebrating the victory with the liberated people.

Jacques disagreed. He waved his hand and left 50 people to watch the scene, while the rest could go to the manor to collect military supplies, food and fodder, or collect private spoils.

The French infantry and cavalry were allowed to shout "Ula", and they rushed into the white villa or oak house with small courtyards. As for the residence of the larger number of black slaves, even without the strict prohibition of Lieutenant Jacques, the arrogant French soldiers would not touch this dirty and smelly wooden house.

The appearance of the entire manor is no different from that before the planter fled. Although General Bellsford asked the Portuguese to be firm and clear the fields and not leave the French a piece of food, a piece of bread, or a livestock, in fact, only the larger towns strictly followed the orders of the coalition commander.

As for the many owners of the manors, they were worried that the French occupation forces would not be able to collect any food and fodder, so they ordered the entire manor to be burned (in fact, the French army often did this on the Iberis Peninsula). Therefore, when they fled, they only took away their clothes, national debt scrolls, precious oil paintings and some food and livestock, while most of the food and livestock, as well as the endless four-cart trucks, and even some silver or copper coins, all left to the upcoming occupying forces.

After hundreds of years of domestication of whips, black slaves seem honest and responsible. Few people dare to greed for the property left by their masters to the French army. Even though they have long lost their masters and supervisors, they will not choose to self-salvation and escape privately. They still continue to do their daily work, maintaining patches of vineyards, and preparing for the upcoming harvest.

French soldiers can do whatever they want as long as they do not set fires in the house or destroy items at will. No one stops them. The soldiers carried sacks of sugar, corn flour, flour, potatoes and rice from the warehouse (don't be surprised, Europeans also eat this thing). In the basement, there are buckets of raw red and white wine, large quantities of bacon, sausages, ham, and pots of heavy honey and sorghum syrup, waiting for the French to get it.

After obtaining Lieutenant Jacques' permission, a sergeant called more than 50 black slaves to help. They drove out five or six intact chariots from the bullpen, moved all the military supplies seized by the soldiers, tied half of the cattle, horses and livestock behind the large cart, and left the other half to the black slaves. When the public affairs were processed, it was the soldiers' turn to count the personal harvest.

After getting all kinds of coins in the villa, they have successfully entered the soldiers' pockets. As for large items, such as silver candlesticks, metal dining plates with gold threads, exquisitely crafted music boxes, packaged high-quality cigars, and other valuable things, they are all piled up on the open space. These items will be processed by the quarantine officer, and they will be labeled with the personal name of the subordinate one by one, but they will be transported to the large cart. After being auctioned to the military merchants, the management fee of 20% of the goods will be deducted and finally distributed to the soldiers in currency such as francs or riyals.

It is still past 4 pm, and it is still a while before dark. After a day of hard work, the soldiers who were free and had nothing to do seem to want to rush back to the barracks too early to taste the unique disgusting smell of Spam canned food from the kitchen, and they all suggested to the sergeants that they would put today's dinner in this manor to deal with it.

After obtaining the approval of the non-commissioned officers, the soldiers took action to slaughter pigs and chickens, but some of them were not skilled enough. The chickens flew out of the chicken coop and the pigs ran away from the pigpen. The escaped livestock were struggling and howling everywhere. The whole manor was simply a mess. Many black children got rid of their parents' control and ran. They stood aside and giggled at the busy white soldiers.

While the soldiers were busy, Lieutenant Jacques had already walked out of the convertible carriage. He instructed several black slaves to bring a dark wooden table to the villa square. On the long wooden table were more than a dozen plates, containing white bread, bacon, sausage, honey, cheese, onions, olives, as well as a few bottles of aged high-quality wine, as well as several high-end wine glasses surrounding the bottle.

According to the rules announced by Jacques in advance, each black slave needs to line up one by one, sign the documents of the liberation slaves placed at the front of the long table, or press the fingerprint. Like the previous actions, all black slaves only pressed the fingerprints on the documents and turned and left silently, without any thanks or expression of anger. Everything was dull, as if they had done something unrelated to them, until Diego walked to the long dining table.

Diego did not choose to use his right thumb to stick to the red mud, but unexpectedly picked up the French "Declaration on Liberation of Black Slaves" written, put it in front of him, and read it carefully in every line.

All of this was in Lieutenant Jacques' eyes. He used to looking to his left and found that the damn Tias was still eating and drinking hard on the dining table, so he pulled out his hand and patted the head of the follower beside him.

"Lieutenant, you almost made me choke to death by this piece of bacon!" After a dry cough, Tias whispered.

Jacques smiled, but ignored the intense reaction of the follower. He untied his napkin, stood up, and asked in French to the strong black man in front of him: "Sir, what do you call me? What do you need to explain to you in the contents of the document?"

...
Chapter completed!