The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave TradeExamines the history of the Fante people of southern Ghana during the transatlantic slave trade, 1700 to 1807.The 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. 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 African Trade Akan language Akani Akwamu Akyem Amonu Kuma Annamaboe Anomabo asafo companies Asante Asante Kingdom Asantehene Asebu Ashantee Atlantic Africa Atlantic slave trade Atlantic trade Atlantic World Borbor Fante braffo caboceers Cambridge Cape Coast Castle captives central Coastal Coalition coastal polities colonial 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 Journal of African king Komenda Kurentsi leaders London Lovejoy Mankessim McCaskie Melvil military modern-day Nananom Mpow nineteenth century Oral Tradition Oxford palavers panyarring political authorities Portuguese precolonial priests region Robin Law Rømer Royal African Company Settlements seventeenth century ships shrine Slave Coast Slavery social Society southern Ghana tion Trade and Polities transatlantic slave trade Twifo University Press warfare wars West Africa