Description
Book SynopsisThe role and consequences of slavery in the history of Africa have been brought to the fore recently in historical, anthropological and archaeological research. Public remembrances - such as Abolition 2007 in Great Britain, which marked the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and which this volume also commemorates - have also stimulated considerable interest. There is a growing realisation that enslavement, whether as part of a sliding scale of ''rights in persons'' or due to acts of violence, has a history on the African continent that extends back in time long before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.The nature of such enslavement is obscured by the lack of resolution in historical sources before the middle of the second millennium AD. Ground-breaking archaeological research is now building models for approaching slave labour systems via collaboration with historians and the critical scrutiny of historical data. Generally, such new research focuses at the landscape scal
Trade Reviewin Africa thus stands as a major addition to the literature on the archaeology of Africaâs recent past, and will find a welcomehomeon the bookshelves of students of African history and comparative slavery alike. * J. Cameron Monroe, South African Archaeological Bulletin *
Table of ContentsSECTION 1: SLAVE SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION IN THE AFRICAN INTERIOR: CASE STUDIES FROM THE SUDANIC BELT ; SECTION 2: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE: EVIDENCE FROM AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE PASSAGE ; SECTION 3: ELUSIVE SLAVERY: DETECTING ENSLAVEMENT IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD OF EASTERN AFRICA ; SECTION 4: REMEMBERING SLAVERY: CONTEMPORARY PERCEPTIONS
