Slavery and Reform in West Africa (Western African Studies Series): Toward Emancipation in Nineteenth-Century Senegal and the Gold Coast FROM THE PUBLISHER
By comparing the strategies of colonial administrators, slave owners, and slaves across these two regions and throughout the nineteenth century, Slavery and Reform in West Africa reveals not only the reasons for the astounding success of slave owners but also the factors that could, and in some cases did, lead to slave liberations. These findings have serious implications for the wider study of slavery and emancipation and for the history of Africa generally.
SYNOPSIS
In a comparative analysis of the origins and impact of anti-slavery reforms on two countries in colonial coastal West Africa, Getz (African history, San Francisco State U.) traces the conditions under which reform, abolition, and compromised forms of emancipation would occur and the often overlooked central role of Africans in these processes. This approach avoids a reductionistic slave agency vs. particular regime policy focus that might miss regional variations and trends in the slave trade prior to this period. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR