Abstract: The article examines the role of slavery in the Portuguese response to the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Historically, the Estado da Índia had often used African slave soldiers in times of need, but the reaction of Goa’s colonial government to the Mutiny was hindered by restrictions on slave trading in the Indian Ocean—regulations mandated from London and Lisbon in 1842. As the abolishment of the Indian Ocean slave trade was highly unpopular among Indo-Portuguese elites and merchants, however, the corresponding attitudes created a greater leeway to circumvent regulations. Against this background, the present work analyzes the decision of the Portuguese governor in India to bring conscripted African soldiers from Mozambique to Goa in 1858.

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