From the material on this website it is obvious that slavery figures in the Barrow Lousada story. The apparently benevolent disposition of slaves appears in some of the early Barrow Lousada wills, for example in the will of Joseph Barrow. Moses Baruh Lousada #32 is also on record as having manumitted a slave. His brother Emanuel Baruh Lousada #142 - the 2nd Peak House Lousada - is the only family member listed as a slave-owner in ref 165, lending some support to the family legends that Simon Barrow of Bath and Isaac the 1st Lousada Duke freed their slaves early and were not eligible for compensation upon abolition.  Isaac's father Emanuel #135 at various times owned slave-dependent plantations including Richmond, Knights, Banks and Carlisle and it was the last plantation that Isaac owned well past abolition and which became uneconomic. Daniel Ximenes, a son-in-law of Emanuel #135 had a ship Abigail which on at least one occasion carried slaves (ref 45 p302). Emanuel #135 in Jamaica and Emanuel #1500 in Barbados each appeared to father a mulatto offspring who was apparently conscientiously provided for. The business concern Barrow & Lousada was active in pursuing compensation claims but whether as principal or agent we cannot say except in the case of Emanuel #142 above. Earlier, one of the Lamegos - after bidding a vast sum - secured the exclusive Spanish slave contract for the years 1623-30 and had a representative in Jamaica well before 1655.

The Barrow Lousada family has links with the anti-slavery movement in the early 1800s. Many associated with abolitionism, including directly with William Wilberforce, and the evangelical Christian Clapham sect. John Bury advises that his own family’s brush with the sect included 2 marriages into the Thornton family, cousins of the Wilberforces – Edward Thornton (senior) marrying Elizabeth Bacon, and his son Edward marrying her niece Mary Ann, sister-in-law of Mary Lousada. Jewish participation in the anti-slavery movement is touched upon in ref 38. The official abolition of slavery in the British Empire occurred in 1834; and abolition came with compensation to slave-owners. The records of these payments and claims form the basis for the research in ref 165. Sir Moses Montefiore was a financier of a £15m raising by the British Government for the purpose, but his uncle Eliezer Montefiore of Barbados, according to ref 165 p63 was a slave-trader and his cousins Jacob and Joseph Barrow Montefiore received compensation and then 'turned their attention to Australia'.

Slavery was not unique to any particular family or ethnic group - it was widespread. If there had been no slavery in the West Indies, we cannot say whether the Barrow Lousadas would have been relatively better or worse off than others. Historically, sugarcane (growing, harvesting and processing) was labour-intensive and the industry's historical growth depended in great measure upon slave labour. All participants in the Atlantic triangle trade had a dependency on slavery; Catholics and Protestants, English, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish etc. If there had been no slavery, we cannot say whether the Portuguese Sephardim would have been relatively better or worse off than the other participants. For scholarly assessments of the role of the Portuguese Sephardim in the slave trade, see refs 44 and 45. The epilogue gives a view on why slavery should not be ignored in history.