Resumo: A Provedoria-Mor da Saúde de Pernambuco foi criada em 1810. A partir de então, os navios negreiros que chegavam no Recife passaram a ser visitados por agentes da saúde que verificavam se os escravizados recém-desembarcados traziam doenças consideradas contagiosas, de acordo com a medicina da época. Apenas aqueles que traziam esses males eram mandados para o Lazareto de Santo Amaro para serem tratados. Uma vez curados, eram devolvidos a seus donos para serem vendidos. Os empregados da Provedoria da Saúde vistoriaram navios negreiros que trouxeram mais de 47 mil pessoas para o Recife. Seus relatos das visitas ajudam-nos a entender o funcionamento do tráfico de escravos num dos principais portos brasileiros antes que este fosse decretado totalmente ilegal, em 1831.

Abstract: The Provedoria-Mor da Saúde of Pernambuco (Brazil), the government agency which took care of public health in Pernambuco, was created in 1810. Thereafter, slave ships that arrived at Recife were visited by health agents who verified if the recently arrived enslaved people carried diseases which were considered contagious, according to the 19th century medical sciences. Only those who carried the said maladies were sent to the Santo Amaro Leprosarium to be treated. Once they were healed, they were returned to their owners to be sold. The employees of that health agency examined slave ships that carried more than 47 thousand people to Recife. Their reports help us to understand how the slave trade was carried out in a major Brazilian harbor, before it was declared illegal in 1831.