In the sixteenth century the island of São Tomé became a major hub in Portuguese trade between Europe and the Americas. However, the island was seen as dangerous and remote, with few people volunteering to go there. Instead, the island was forcibly settled with convicts, Jews expelled from Portugal, and slaves taken from the African coast. The island is thought to have played a key role in the development of the plantation slavery system which then spread to the Caribbean and North and South America, but has, to date, been the subject of little direct study.
In a paper published in the journal Antiquity on 14 August 2023, Dores Cruz of the University of Cologne, Larissa Thomas of Environmental Resources Management, and Nazaré Ceita of the University of São Tomé e Príncipe, discuss a project to preserve t the site of Praia Melão, the largest sugar mill and estate on the island, which was active from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, and the first site to be investigated by archaeologists on São Tomé.
The islands of São Tomé and Príncipe lie in the Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa, and were claimed by Portugal in the late fifteenth century, with São Tomé. quickly becoming one of the first European-controlled ports in Africa, specialising in the extractive trade in slaves and gold, along with Elmina on the coast of what is now Ghana. The island has a tropical climate and an abundant supply of both fresh water and timber, and was recognised as a potential location for Sugarcane plantations as early as 1485, with the first cultivation of the crop recorded in 1506. By 1517 Sugar cultivation was growing and successful industry, with two Sugar mills in operation and plans to build ten more. Sugar cultivation is a labour intensive process, and the industry quickly became dependant on the importation of large numbers of slaves from Africa, principally from Benin in modern Nigeria and Kongo, which incorporated parts of the modern coasts of Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, and Gabon. By the 1530s São Tomé had become the world's largest producer of Sugar, surpassing the island of Madeira where a more traditional style of cultivation was practiced, and becoming the first economy to be based upon the slavery and monoculture model, which was then exported to the new world. However, this economic dominance was short-lived, and by the beginning of the seventeenth century São Tomé had been surpassed as the largest producer of Sugar by Brazil. Many of the successful plantation owners from São Tomé relocated to the New World, and the island's economy became dependant on the export of slaves for plantations elsewhere.
The interior of São Tomé is mountainous and heavily forested, which restricted early settlement to the coastal plains on the north and northeast of the island, where elevations are typically below 200 m. On these plains, the forests were largely cleared, to form large estates for the growing of Sugarcane, with mills being established by rivers and streams. The only known surviving estate house and mill from this period is at Praia Melão, which dates back to at least the sixteenth century, when it was recognises as the estate on the island. An archaeological survey of the site in 2020 established the importance of the site, and a heritage program has been developed by the University of São Tomé e Príncipe, which aims to include a field school, survey and excavation.
The mill and estate house form a single large stone building, south of the village of Praia Melão by the Ribeiro Manuel Jorge, which flows eastwards to the Gulf of Guinea. The building appears to have been altered and probably expanded more than once during its long usage. Its general style is typical of Portuguese buildings of the period, including clay roof styles. The mill was powered by a mill race which channelled water from the river. Preliminary excavation work at the side has yielded s fragments of sugar moulds and the stone base of a press.
The building is a two-storey structure measuring 23 m x 16 m, subdivided into three large rooms on both floors. The largest room measures 17 m v 8.5 m and is adjacent to the retaining wall that supported the mill race, and housed the hydraulic mill or mills. The room next to this appears to have been used for sugar-boiling, and has scorched walls, presumably from the fires upon which the sugar was boiled. The upper story of the building has partially collapsed, but appears to have held living quarters for the mill owners, with stuccoed walls and wall cabinets, balconies, and windows that allowed surveillance of the working areas. The walls of the lower story are roughly finished and graffitied in places, largely with religious symbols and lettering. No kitchen has been identified, but an outside cooking area would not have been unusual for a Portuguese structure of the period.
Preliminary investigations at the site recovered numerous ceramic objects littering the site, mostly Sugar moulds, which have also been embedded in refurbished walls. X-ray fluorescence analysis of fragments of three moulds showed that they appear to have had a common origin to similar moulds from Madeira, which are known to have been produced in Aveiro, Portugal, which was a major centre for the exportation of ceramics for both domestic and industrial purposes.
The building is thought to have been used for about 400 years after the decline of the Sugar industry on São Tomé, with Sugar production being surplanted by that of alcohol and then Cassava flower. Praia Melão is well documented in written histories of São Tomé, as well as the oral traditions of the island. Despite this, local communities seemed unaware of the significance of the site, even though it is located on a well-used footpath. This lack of awareness, combined with the tropical climate and encroaching forest vegetation, makes it likely that the site would disappear soon without active preservation.
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