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African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame
“The first history of the Atlantic slave trade culled from the memories of those Africans left behind . . . it will forever alter our understanding of the Middle Passage.” —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional!
The story of the Atlantic slave trade has largely been filtered through the eyes and records of white Europeans, but in this watershed book, Anne C. Bailey focuses on memories of the trade from the African perspective. African chiefs and other elders in an area of southeastern Ghana once famously called “the Old Slave Coast” share stories that reveal that Africans were both traders and victims of the trade. Though Africans were not equal partners with Europeans, their involvement had devastating consequences on their history and sense of identity.
Like victims of trauma, many African societies now experience a fragmented view of their past that partially explains the blanket of silence and shame around the slave trade. Capturing astonishing oral histories that were handed down through generations of storytellers—like an 1856 incident involving the kidnapping of famous drummers and traders by Europeans and Americans—Bailey breaks the deafening silence around slavery and explores the delicate and fragmented nature of historical memory in this rare, unprecedented book.
“In a path-breaking work, Anne C. Bailey utilizes the power of oral traditions to reconstruct the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade. The book powerfully illuminates the importance of the concrete cultural survival of African traditions within the Atlantic slave trade and slavery.” —Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine Segal Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, and chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
The story of the Atlantic slave trade has largely been filtered through the eyes and records of white Europeans, but in this watershed book, Anne C. Bailey focuses on memories of the trade from the African perspective. African chiefs and other elders in an area of southeastern Ghana once famously called “the Old Slave Coast” share stories that reveal that Africans were both traders and victims of the trade. Though Africans were not equal partners with Europeans, their involvement had devastating consequences on their history and sense of identity.
Like victims of trauma, many African societies now experience a fragmented view of their past that partially explains the blanket of silence and shame around the slave trade. Capturing astonishing oral histories that were handed down through generations of storytellers—like an 1856 incident involving the kidnapping of famous drummers and traders by Europeans and Americans—Bailey breaks the deafening silence around slavery and explores the delicate and fragmented nature of historical memory in this rare, unprecedented book.
“In a path-breaking work, Anne C. Bailey utilizes the power of oral traditions to reconstruct the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade. The book powerfully illuminates the importance of the concrete cultural survival of African traditions within the Atlantic slave trade and slavery.” —Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine Segal Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, and chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
289 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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About the author
Anne C. Bailey
3 books14 followersAnne C. Bailey is an Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 27, 2023
“African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade” is one of the best books ever written on the history of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade (the “TAST”), for no other reason than it approaches the topic from the point of view of African people themselves. Author and historian Ann C. Bailey conducted on the ground research in Ghana over a three-year period in order to evaluate the oral history of the TAST on the Anlo-Ewe coast in Southeastern Ghana. Her main aim is to reconstruct this history as a means to reconstructing African identity in the diaspora and on the continent, because as she posits, a fragmented history leads to a fragmented identity.
Bailey begins by speculating why African people all over the world are reluctant to discuss the true history of the TAST. What explains the reluctance Afro-descended people have in fully discussing and examining this history? Shame? Guilt? Cultural inhibitions? “African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade” seeks to answer this question by analyzing the historical response to the TAST by Afro-descended people Ghana. Bailey examines these issues through the tragic story of an ethnic group (the Anlo-Ewe) in Southeastern Ghana who have stained in their collective memories an incident of treachery, kidnapping, and forced deportation of a group of their people by Euro-American slavers in 1856. In telling this story (from which Bailey largely gleaned from oral accounts told by descendants), Bailey details the intricacies of both white (Euro-American) and Black (continental African) involvement in slave procurement on the West African coast. With this information, Bailey seeks to locate and awaken the lost narratives and understandings of TAST, all the while explaining how these narratives were lost in the first place.
Much of the book seeks to answer questions regarding the proper allocation of blame for the TAST. As Bailey repeatedly notes, that blame should primarily rests with Europeans and Americans (whites), as they controlled five of the six legs of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Further, Bailey fascinatingly details how the supposed so-called “abolition” of the TAST by British and America was actually farcical, as hundreds of thousands of Africans continued to be imported to the Americas through all the way through the end of the 19th Century. The truth is America and Britain were wholly uncommitted to truly policing and enforcing abolition, and prioritized the rights of their traders over the human rights of Africans.
Throughout the book Bailey pours water on the hot take that Africans and Europeans were equal “partners” in the trade. Bailey notes that African societies were far too numerous, small in scale, and focused on their own localities to have the same type of power and influence over the trade that Euro-American entities possessed. Also, Bailey traces the correlation between higher incidences of European activities on the African coast with increases in slave trading. If not for persistent European demand, and the trans-continental network run by Europeans to facilitate it, the TAST simply could not have operated. Nevertheless, in the section on African agency and involvement in the trade Bailey sought to explain and contextualize the narrative that “Africans sold other Africans.” First she demonstrates the fallacious nature of this assertion, making abundantly clear that there was no Pan African identity during the era of the slave trade. She further details how notions of African community centered on small, class-based kinship entities, and this drove the cultural motivations behind Africans selling members of their own “ethnic group” (i.e. same language speakers) into slavery. Second, Bailey reiterates that any discussion of “Africans selling Africans” without centering the primacy of Euro-American control over the trade is unduly decontextualized to the point of gross distortion. Finally, Bailey went into great detail on the role of large African polities such as Asante with respect to slave trading. While there is no doubt that large African states were major participants, their motives were complex and varied, spanning from the unintended consequences of their imperialist agenda, to the strengthening of their own socioeconomic and political standing. Ultimately, Bailey identified Africa’s preexisting system of class division as the root of African involvement in the slave trade, as well as the fact that once the TAST rose to preeminence it siphoned off almost all other economic activity, making many traders feel like they had no choice but to sell Africans to Europeans.
This book is jam-packed with information on the ultimate impact of the TAST on African people. Bailey discusses how the super-exploitation of African people via the slave trade turned them into perpetual consumers dependent on foreign products and services (a problem that is still prevalent to this day), because slavery and the slave trade broke down traditional African modes and means of production. The TAST also corrupted the political, legal, religious and social orders of African societies by dismantling and/or delegitimizing indigenous institutions and practices. It also led to a fundamental change in how Africans related to one another, as the frequency and level of violence in warfare increased due to Europe’s deliberate pumping of millions of guns into Africa during the era. The TAST also calcified the institution of domestic slavery in Africa, and ruined West-Central Africa’s democratic traditions by empowering rouge traders over accountable chiefs.
The impact of the TAST on African societies cannot be overstated. It devastated indigenous institutions, wedding them to the trade by breaking down customs designed to mediate disputes among the community, resulting in “Africans selling other Africans” to Euro-American slavers. The TAST was also the beginning of the era gross debt peonage between European traders and nations, and African “partners.” Bailey does a supreme job dispelling the common myths surrounding the TAST, and providing vital context and information on this painful period of human history. Highly recommend this book.
Bailey begins by speculating why African people all over the world are reluctant to discuss the true history of the TAST. What explains the reluctance Afro-descended people have in fully discussing and examining this history? Shame? Guilt? Cultural inhibitions? “African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade” seeks to answer this question by analyzing the historical response to the TAST by Afro-descended people Ghana. Bailey examines these issues through the tragic story of an ethnic group (the Anlo-Ewe) in Southeastern Ghana who have stained in their collective memories an incident of treachery, kidnapping, and forced deportation of a group of their people by Euro-American slavers in 1856. In telling this story (from which Bailey largely gleaned from oral accounts told by descendants), Bailey details the intricacies of both white (Euro-American) and Black (continental African) involvement in slave procurement on the West African coast. With this information, Bailey seeks to locate and awaken the lost narratives and understandings of TAST, all the while explaining how these narratives were lost in the first place.
Much of the book seeks to answer questions regarding the proper allocation of blame for the TAST. As Bailey repeatedly notes, that blame should primarily rests with Europeans and Americans (whites), as they controlled five of the six legs of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Further, Bailey fascinatingly details how the supposed so-called “abolition” of the TAST by British and America was actually farcical, as hundreds of thousands of Africans continued to be imported to the Americas through all the way through the end of the 19th Century. The truth is America and Britain were wholly uncommitted to truly policing and enforcing abolition, and prioritized the rights of their traders over the human rights of Africans.
Throughout the book Bailey pours water on the hot take that Africans and Europeans were equal “partners” in the trade. Bailey notes that African societies were far too numerous, small in scale, and focused on their own localities to have the same type of power and influence over the trade that Euro-American entities possessed. Also, Bailey traces the correlation between higher incidences of European activities on the African coast with increases in slave trading. If not for persistent European demand, and the trans-continental network run by Europeans to facilitate it, the TAST simply could not have operated. Nevertheless, in the section on African agency and involvement in the trade Bailey sought to explain and contextualize the narrative that “Africans sold other Africans.” First she demonstrates the fallacious nature of this assertion, making abundantly clear that there was no Pan African identity during the era of the slave trade. She further details how notions of African community centered on small, class-based kinship entities, and this drove the cultural motivations behind Africans selling members of their own “ethnic group” (i.e. same language speakers) into slavery. Second, Bailey reiterates that any discussion of “Africans selling Africans” without centering the primacy of Euro-American control over the trade is unduly decontextualized to the point of gross distortion. Finally, Bailey went into great detail on the role of large African polities such as Asante with respect to slave trading. While there is no doubt that large African states were major participants, their motives were complex and varied, spanning from the unintended consequences of their imperialist agenda, to the strengthening of their own socioeconomic and political standing. Ultimately, Bailey identified Africa’s preexisting system of class division as the root of African involvement in the slave trade, as well as the fact that once the TAST rose to preeminence it siphoned off almost all other economic activity, making many traders feel like they had no choice but to sell Africans to Europeans.
This book is jam-packed with information on the ultimate impact of the TAST on African people. Bailey discusses how the super-exploitation of African people via the slave trade turned them into perpetual consumers dependent on foreign products and services (a problem that is still prevalent to this day), because slavery and the slave trade broke down traditional African modes and means of production. The TAST also corrupted the political, legal, religious and social orders of African societies by dismantling and/or delegitimizing indigenous institutions and practices. It also led to a fundamental change in how Africans related to one another, as the frequency and level of violence in warfare increased due to Europe’s deliberate pumping of millions of guns into Africa during the era. The TAST also calcified the institution of domestic slavery in Africa, and ruined West-Central Africa’s democratic traditions by empowering rouge traders over accountable chiefs.
The impact of the TAST on African societies cannot be overstated. It devastated indigenous institutions, wedding them to the trade by breaking down customs designed to mediate disputes among the community, resulting in “Africans selling other Africans” to Euro-American slavers. The TAST was also the beginning of the era gross debt peonage between European traders and nations, and African “partners.” Bailey does a supreme job dispelling the common myths surrounding the TAST, and providing vital context and information on this painful period of human history. Highly recommend this book.
April 11, 2011
This book is an excellent examination of how local African History remembers the slave trade. Previously the majority of the slave trade has been examined, interpreted and remembered through the records left behind by white plantation owners, slave traders, British ministers and abolitionists. Very little has been done to examine contemporary African records (principally because they are so difficult to get hold of, especially since many of them are part of the verbal tradition of many of the west coast tribal groups). Anne Bailey's book (originally her PhD thesis) takes steps to redress this imbalance and examine the African perspective to understand how the trade was perceived from the shores of west africa rather than the shores of the new world. This book does read like a PhD thesis so its probably not the best initial introduction to the Trans Atlantic Slave trade but for the more indepth researcher this is an asset and an excellent introduction to another set of source material.
September 16, 2018
This was a disappointing work - the historography of the African Squadron suppression effort is particularly atrocious, ridden with factual errors (p.38 misstates the origin of the squadron by three decades, misstates the legal foundation of the squadron, and misunderstands the Anglo-American relationship), and with tortured interpretations of these events to conform to the author's thesis (p.50 compares the number of slavers to the number of cruisers as a measure of relatively effort - this is a category error, as there are far more merchantmen than men-of-war then, and now for that matter, and measuring percentage of RN effort would be a far more conventional reading.) The author takes Eric Williams' discredited thesis for gospel without meaningfully engaging the Drescher/Eltis hypothesis (p. 126) and seems to be more interested in telling the author's personal story than getting the history right. While this really could have been a good and provocative book, bringing in a lot of interesting perspectives, the author's perspective admits no competitors and engages in analytical errors to advance that perspective. Once again, some rigor and objectivity would have redeemed some really excellent raw material - while the author argues that objectivity is not possible given the subject matter, I would argue the subject matter is so important that it demands rigor and objectivity - especially because understanding the historical experience better equips us to fight modern slavery.
On a personal note, I remember hearing the author speak at an InterVarsity conference years ago when I was a younger scholar. Now seeing the quality of her work, and moreso the bias and even bile in her presentation, I feel somewhat frustrated that someone placed the author on a podium as an examplar of faith in the academe, especially to a crowd who (including myself) were probably too credulous to be wary of these things.
On a personal note, I remember hearing the author speak at an InterVarsity conference years ago when I was a younger scholar. Now seeing the quality of her work, and moreso the bias and even bile in her presentation, I feel somewhat frustrated that someone placed the author on a podium as an examplar of faith in the academe, especially to a crowd who (including myself) were probably too credulous to be wary of these things.
September 3, 2012
For the type of book it is this is an amazing book. That is to say that so far I have not come across a book like it in its genre, the amount of research and dedication it took to create this book is amazing. Since it came out still nothing has changed on the denial of Slave Trade in Africa nor the repriation and rememory that countless generations and people need so badly. I highly recommend this book to anyone whether they have an interest in the history of slavery, the history of Africa, history globally or an intrest in humanity.
February 17, 2011
I read this book for a class on Violence and African History. While it gives a good account of the African side of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, it can be a bit hard to follow. So many events are taking place and it isn't always easy to ascertain in which time they are occurring. There is also an issue if you are not complete familiar with Ghana and the communities which inhabit it; a small primer might be best.
June 13, 2011
Here as part of the slavery spiral. On the whole I found this very informative, but I have to confess I found the writing a bit unclear in places. I wondered if this was written before The Slave Ship (I think that was the title) because I was surprise that wasn't in the bibliography.
March 2, 2011
Interesting book but assumes a fair amount of prior knowledge, so not a great introduction to the topic.
June 1, 2015
The fallout and perceptions from the other side of the imperial system that still plagues Africa.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews