Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa

by Paul E. Lovejoy

• ISBN13: 9780521784306
• ISBN10: 0521784301
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This history of slavery in Africa from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century examines how indigenous African slavery developed within an international context. Professor Lovejoy discusses the medieval Islamic slave trade and the Atlantic trade as well as the process of enslavement and the marketing of slaves. He considers the impact of European abolition and assesses slavery's role in African history. The book corrects the accepted interpretation that African slavery was mild and resulted in the slaves' assimilation. Instead, slaves were used extensively in production, although the exploitation methods and the relationships to world markets differed from those in the Americas. Nevertheless, slavery in Africa, like slavery in the Americas, developed from its position on the periphery of capitalist Europe. The new edition revises all statistical material on the slave trade demography and incorporates recent research with an updated bibliography.

Author Biography

Paul E. Lovejoy is currently Distinguished Research Professor of History at York University as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Tables	xi
Note on Currencies, Weights, and Measures	xiii
Preface	xv
Preface to the Second Edition	xix
Africa and Slavery	1	(23)
Slavery: A Definition	1	(8)
Slavery in Social Formations	9	(3)
The African Setting	12	(3)
The Islamic Factor	15	(3)
The Trans-Atlantic Trade	18	(6)
On the Frontiers of Islam, 1400--1600	24	(22)
The Medieval Slave Trade: The African Frontier	24	(5)
The Institution of Slavery in Muslim Africa	29	(7)
Origins of the Atlantic Trade: The Muslim Connection	36	(5)
Slavery Along the Guinea Coast	41	(5)
The Export Trade in Slaves, 1600--1800	46	(22)
Volume of the Export Trade, 1600--1800	46	(7)
The Dominance of West-Central Africa	53	(2)
The Bight of Benin, 1640--1800	55	(2)
The Gold Coast	57	(2)
The Bight of Biafra	59	(1)
The Upper Guinea Coast and Senegambia	60	(1)
The Volume of the Trade Across the Sahara, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean	61	(1)
Demographic Implications of the Export Trade	62	(6)
The Enslavement of Africans, 1600--1800	68	(23)
A Politically Fragmented Continent	68	(2)
The Muslim Tradition of War and State	70	(6)
War-Lords of West-Central Africa	76	(4)
Politics of Slave Trading on the West African Coast	80	(6)
The Dynamics of Slave Supply	86	(5)
The Organization of Slave Marketing, 1600--1800	91	(21)
Muslim Networks	91	(4)
Administered Trade in West-Central Africa	95	(3)
Coastal West Africa: State Trade, River-Boats, and Oracles	98	(6)
Patterns in Restrictive Practices	104	(1)
Slaves and Other Commodities	105	(1)
The Import Trade	106	(6)
Relationships of Dependency, 1600--1800	112	(28)
The Expansion of Slavery	112	(3)
The Northern Savanna	115	(5)
The West African Coast and Its Interior	120	(7)
Slavery in West-Central Africa	127	(6)
European Slavery in Africa	133	(7)
The Nineteenth-Century Slave Trade	140	(25)
The Dynamics of Slavery in the Nineteenth Century	140	(5)
The Trans-Atlantic Trade: The Last Surge	145	(6)
The Volume of the Non-Slave Trade	151	(1)
The Trans-Saharan and Red Sea Trade	152	(3)
The East African Trade	155	(3)
The Internal Trade	158	(7)
Slavery and `Legitimate Trade' on the West African Coast	165	(26)
Slavery and `Legitimate Trade'	165	(2)
The Western Coast and Asante	167	(9)
Dahomey and the Yoruba States	176	(6)
The Bight of Biafra	182	(9)
Slavery in the Savanna During the Era of the Jihads	191	(35)
The Size of the Slave Population in the Savanna	191	(3)
The Western Sudan	194	(7)
The Central Sudan	201	(7)
The Region East of Lake Chad	208	(4)
The Organization of the Plantation Sector	212	(4)
Slavery in the Sahel	216	(4)
Assimilation of Slaves	220	(4)
Slavery on the Periphery	224	(2)
Slavery in Central, southern, and Eastern Africa in the Nineteenth Century	226	(26)
The Expansion of the External Enclaves	226	(3)
The Omani-Swahili Sector	229	(4)
The South-Eastern Coast and the Lake Malawi Corridor	233	(4)
The Portuguese Enclaves in West-Central Africa	237	(1)
Apprenticeship in South Africa	238	(2)
Expansion of an Indigenous Slave Mode of Production	240	(5)
The Limited Transformation of Lineage Slavery	245	(7)
The Abolitionist Impulse	252	(24)
The Reluctant Move Towards Abolition	252	(2)
The Colonial Occupation of the Western Coast	254	(8)
Christian Missions in Central and East Africa	262	(5)
The Imperialist Justification of Islamic Slavery	267	(9)
Slavery in the Political Economy of Africa	276	(14)
Slavery as a Mode of Production	276	(5)
The Transformation of Slavery	281	(2)
Articulation with Capitalism	283	(4)
The Legacy of Slavery	287	(3)
Appendix: Chronology of Measures Against Slavery	290	(5)
Notes	295	(23)
Bibliography	318	(37)
Index	355