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

by Robin Law (Editor), David Anderson (Editor), Carolyn Brown (Editor)

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.

Genres: History, Africa

292 pages, Paperback

First published August 17, 1995

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A collection of scholarly papers exploring the economic transformations that occurred in coastal West Africa following the outlawing of the slave trade in the early 19th century. These essays attempt to answer the central question "was there an economic crisis of adaptation among African polities following the outlawing of the Atlantic Slave Trade?"