An illegal voyage made decades after the transatlantic slave trade was banned is now at the center of a major archaeological investigation in Brazil. The Camargo slave shipwreck, believed to be the oldest of its kind ever discovered, is shedding new light on the secretive and brutal final years of human trafficking across the Atlantic.
In 1852, the Camargo carried over 500 enslaved Africans from Mozambique to the southeastern coast of Brazil—more than two years after the trade was outlawed in the country.
Soon after docking in Angra dos Reis, the ship was deliberately sunk to conceal its illegal activity. The wreck remained largely untouched beneath layers of mud, though its location had been known to local descendants of enslaved people for generations.
Descendants guide investigation into long-lost slave ship
Today, researchers from a multidisciplinary team—archaeologists, historians, filmmakers, and community leaders—are leading the formal study of the vessel.
The Quilombo Santa Rita do Bracuí, a community formed by the descendants of enslaved Africans who were brought to the region, guided the investigation.
The project is managed by the AfrOrigens Institute, a nonprofit launched in 2023, which secured a $295,000 grant from the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation.
Interest in the shipwreck dates back to the 1990s, when Brazilian historian Martha Abreu uncovered newspaper clippings referencing the Camargo and its link to a revolt on a nearby plantation.
She later conducted oral history work within the Quilombo, where she found that residents had long passed down stories about a ship being sunk to hide the enslaved people it carried.
The accounts helped connect historical records to lived memory, but funding was not available at the time to pursue excavation.
Archaeologists confirm identity of Camargo
Efforts to locate the wreck gained momentum in 2022, when marine archaeologists Gilson Rambelli and Luis Felipe Santos led an expedition along the Bracuí River.
The team discovered ship timbers and a hull structure matching both official records and local testimony. Santos said the site provides physical evidence necessary for advancing social justice, reparations, and historical truth for communities still affected by slavery and the slave trade.
Journalist Julian Lucas explores the tragic history of the slave ship Camargo in a New Yorker piece, working with the Slave Wrecks Project to examine its wreckage off Brazil’s coast.
Video Credit: @jcljules pic.twitter.com/VOVOswYRvu
— Seattletoday (@Seattletoday_) March 16, 2025
The project received further support from the Slave Wrecks Project, a joint initiative of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and George Washington University.
With assistance from the group, archaeologists used magnetometry and other tools to confirm the wreck as the Camargo in 2024.
American slave trader linked to shipwreck and later execution
The ship’s captain, American slave trader Nathaniel Gordon, had sunk the vessel to avoid detection. Gordon remained at large for years until he was caught off the coast of West Africa in 1860 while captaining another slave ship.
He was later executed in New York City, becoming the only American ever put to death for slave trading.
Quilombo community members are now trained in scuba diving and assisting with the fieldwork. They are expected to lead future underwater tours of the wreck, creating economic opportunities tied to its preservation.
Researchers indicate that the site may yield artifacts such as shackles, ceramics, bottles, and other items from the era when nearby plantations relied on enslaved labor.
Filmmaker and AfrOrigens co-founder Yuri Sanada is documenting the investigation and called the study long overdue. He noted that while thousands of slave ships crossed the Atlantic, only a handful have ever been properly studied.
For the Quilombo, he said, the wreck represents the first physical evidence of how their ancestors arrived in Brazil—proof that reinforces both their identity and their historical claim to the land.
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