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THE BUSINESS OF SLAVING: PAWNSHIP IN WESTERN AFRICA, c. 1600–1810

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2001

PAUL E. LOVEJOY  and
DAVID RICHARDSON
PAUL E. LOVEJOY
Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
DAVID RICHARDSON
Affiliation:
University of Hull
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Abstract

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The use of people as pawns to underpin credit was widespread in western Africa during the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This study examines where and when pawns were used in commercial transactions involving European slave merchants in the period c. 1600–1810. It is shown that European merchants relied on pawnship as an instrument of credit protection in many places, though not everywhere. Europeans apparently did not hold pawns at Ouidah (after 1727), at Bonny or on the Angolan coast. Nonetheless, the reliance on pawnship elsewhere highlights the influence of African institutions on the development of the slave trade.

Keywords

Western Africaslaveryslave tradeeconomic
Type
The Business of the Slave Trade
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 2001 , pp. 67 - 89
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

Footnotes

The research for this paper was funded in part by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, for Lovejoy, and a University of Hull research grant, for Richardson. The authors wish to thank Robin Law, José Curto and Joseph C. Miller for their references and comments, and Silke Strickrodt for her assistance in the Public Record Office. An earlier version was presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 14 Nov. 1999, at a session organized by Kristin Mann.