From Slave Trade to 'Legitimate' Commerce: The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa

by Robin Law

Overview

This edited collection, written by leading specialists, deals with nineteenth-century commercial transition in West Africa: the ending of the Atlantic slave trade and development of alternative forms of "legitimate" trade. Approaching the subject from an African perspective, the case studies consider the effects of transition on the African societies involved, and provide new insights into the history of precolonial Africa and the slave trade, origins of European imperialism, and longer term issues of economic development in Africa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521481274
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/17/1995
Series:	African Studies , #86
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.94(d)

Table of Contents

List of contributors; List of abbreviations; Introduction Robin Law; 1. The initial 'crisis of adaptation': the impact of British abolition on the Atlantic slave trade in West Africa, 1808–1820 Paul E. Lovejoy and David Richardson; 2. The West African palm oil trade in the nineteenth century and the 'crisis of adaptation' Martin Lynn; 3. The compatibility of the slave and palm oil trades in Dahomey, 1818–1858 Elisée Soumonni; 4. Between abolition and Jihad: the Asante response to the ending of the Atlantic slave trade, 1807–1896 Gareth Austin; 5. Plantations and labour in the south-east Gold Coast from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century Ray A. Kea; 6. Owners, slaves and the struggle for labour in the commercial transition at Lagos Kristin Mann; 7. Slaves, Igbo women and palm oil in the nineteenth century Susan Martin; 8. 'Legitimate' trade and gender relations in Yorubaland and Dahomey Robin Law; 9. In search of a desert-edge perspective: the Sahara-Sahel and the Atlantic trade, c. 1815–1900 E. Ann McDougall; 10. The 'New International Economic Order' in the nineteenth century: Britain's first development plan for Africa A. G. Hopkins; Appendix: the 'crisis of adaptation': a bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"The volume nicely marks the maturation in African historiography since Hopkins first raised the question inspiring it." Historian

From the Publisher