Manillas

During the colonization of Africa in the 1500s, the Portuguese, British, French and Dutch appropriated locally made bracelets throughout Africa used for adornment and currency and manufactured their own versions they named “manillas.” Known also as “slave bracelets,” “slave trade money,” and “bracelet money,” they became the prime African currency to purchase slaves for plantations in the Americas. Brass manilas were transported from Europe to West Africa and exchanged for slaves who were then transported to the Americas and the West Indies where profits were used to purchase American cotton shipped to Europe. The price of a slave in manillas varied according to time, place, and type. Manilla were prohibited for foreign traders under the Manilla Currency Ordinance of 1919 but continued to be used by the West African Currency Board for several decades. In the 1940s and 50’s manillas were collected, confiscated and melted down. Manillas are still worn by Caribbean slave descendants as family treasures to pass to future generations.