On January 8, 1455, Pope Nicholas V issued another Bull exclusively for King Alfonso of Portugal. In essence, this edict confirms and strengthens Alfonso exclusive right to control western African resources and dominate its inhabitants. Much of the wording is an exact duplication of the 1452 Bull. There are however, some changes which may have been considered minor points at the time. But there’s one in particular when viewed through our 21st century lens signifies an important shift in the status of the Indigenous Peoples affected by Alfonso’s actions.
Here is the section of the later 1455 Bull that supersedes the grant Nickolas gave Alfonso in the earlier 1452 Bull:
“We [therefore] weighing all and singular the premises with due meditation, and noting that since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso — to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, ….”
One interesting addition in the 1455 version is the authorization to take both ‘movable and immovable goods”, leaving nothing with the conquered inhabitants. But, the most notable change is that from “perpetual servitude’ to “perpetual slavery”. It’s not clear why Nicholas felt it necessary to make this change. He died the following March, so perhaps he was in ill health and was not totally involved in crafting this Bull. The fact that so much of it is almost an exact duplicate of the 1452 Bull lends some credence to that thought. Regardless, the term ‘slavery’ better aligns with what subsequently happened over the next several centuries.
PRIMARY SOURCE: European Treaties bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies to 1648, Frances Gardiner Davenport, editor, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1917, Washington, D.C., at pp. 20-26.