BlackItaly’s main objective is to reveal the strong connection between the Italian peninsula and the Atlantic slave system from the late mid-15th century, when sub-Saharan slaves began to reach Western Europe through the new Atlantic routes, until the second half of the 19th century and the sunset of the abolitionist debate.

By investigating the involvement of merchants, bankers or investors from the Italian peninsula in the Atlantic slave system, by uncovering the stories of black African slaves who lived in different cities and provinces of the peninsula, and by collecting the main ideas that circulated in favor of or against Atlantic slavery and the slave trade, BlackItaly aims to place the Italian peninsula in a global context and to consider the emergence of racial categories as a long-term phenomenon closely linked to the Atlantic experience, thus going beyond the Italian colonial experience in Africa and fascism