Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, General Research and Reference Division

Élisée Reclus, The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Africa, vol. III (New York: D. Appleton, 1890–1893)

The Cape Verde islands, off the coast of West Africa, were uninhabited. The Portuguese transported Africans from the mainland to work on the newly established sugar plantations-a move that was to be replicated later in the Americas.