The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave TradeThe history of Ghana attracts popular interest out of proportion to its small size and marginal importance to the global economy. Ghana is the land of Kwame Nkrumah and the Pan-Africanist movement of the 1960s; it has been a temporary home to famous African Americans like W. E. B. DuBois and Maya Angelou; and its Asante Kingdom and signature kente cloth-global symbols of African culture and pride-are well known. Ghana also attracts a continuous flow of international tourists because of two historical sites that are among the most notorious monuments of the transatlantic slave trade: Cape Coast and Elmina Castles. These looming structures are a vivid reminder of the horrific trade that gave birth to the black population of the Americas. The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade explores the fascinating history of the transatlantic slave trade on Ghana's coast between 1700 and 1807. Here author Rebecca Shumway brings to life the survival experiences of southern Ghanaians as they became both victims of continuous violence and successful brokers of enslaved human beings. The era of the slave trade gave birth to a new culture in this part of West Africa, just as it was giving birth to new cultures across the Americas. The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade pushes Asante scholarship to the forefront of African diaspora and Atlantic World studies by showing the integral role of Fante middlemen and transatlantic trade in the development of the Asante economy prior to 1807. Rebecca Shumway is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh. |
Contents
Selling Gold and Selling Captives | 25 |
Fanteland in the Atlantic World | 53 |
A New Form of Government | 88 |
Making Fante Culture | 132 |
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Common terms and phrases
Accra African elites African History Akan language Akani Akwamu Akyem Amonu Kuma Annamaboe Anomabo asafo companies Asante Kingdom Asantehene Asebu Ashantee Atlantic Africa Atlantic slave trade Atlantic trade Atlantic World Borbor Fante braffo British company caboceers Cape Coast Castle captives central Coastal Coalition coastal elite coastal polities colonial Company of Merchants cultural Daaku Dantzig Denkyira Dutch Eguafo Elmina English company enslaved Africans Ethnicity European traders expansion Fante language Fantee Fanteland Fanti Fetu Fynn Ghana coast Gold Coast gold trade Guinea Coast Henige hinterland Ibid inland John king Komenda Kurentsi leaders Lovejoy Mankessim McCaskie Melvil military modern-day Nananom Mpow Neighbors nineteenth century Oral Tradition palavers panyarring political authorities Portuguese precolonial priests region Robin Law Rømer Royal African Company Settlements seventeenth century ships shrine Slavery social Society southern Ghana tion Trade and Polities transatlantic slave trade Twifo University of Ghana University Press warfare wars West Africa