Overview

Ghana—for all its notable strides toward more egalitarian political and social systems in the past 60 years—remains a nation plagued with inequalities stemming from its long history of slavery and slave trading. The work assembled in this collection explores the history of slavery in Ghana and its legacy for both Ghana and the descendants of people sold as slaves from the “Gold Coast” in the era of the transatlantic slave trade. The volume is structured to reflect four overlapping areas of investigation: the changing nature of slavery in Ghana, including the ways in which enslaved people have been integrated into or excluded from kinship systems, social institutions, politics, and the workforce over time; the long-standing connections forged between Ghana and the Americas and Europe through the transatlantic trading system and the forced migration of enslaved people; the development of indigenous and transnational anti-slavery ideologies; and the legacy of slavery and its ongoing reverberations in Ghanaian and diasporic society. Bringing together key scholars from Ghana, Europe and the USA who introduce new sources, frames and methodologies including heritage, gender, critical race, and culture studies, and drawing on archival documents and oral histories, Slavery and Its Legacy in Ghana and the Diaspora will be of great interest to scholars and students of comparative slavery, abolition and West African history.

Full Product Details

Author:   Rebecca Shumway (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA) ,  Trevor R. Getz (San Francisco State University, USA)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Weight:   0.562kg
ISBN:  

9781474256636

ISBN 10:   1474256635
Pages:   272
Publication Date:   19 October 2017
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Introduction Trevor Getz (San Francisco State University, USA) and Rebecca Shumway (College of Charleston, USA) The Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery before Colonial Rule 1. Ghana and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Rebecca Shumway (College of Charleston, USA) 2. ‘Tied Up’: Slave Relics in Traditional Political Leadership in Burugu, Northern Ghana Samuel Aniegye Ntewusu (University of Ghana, Ghana) 3. ‘Earth from a Dead Negro’s Grave’: Ritual Technologies and Mortuary Realms in the Eighteenth-Century Gold Coast Diaspora Walter Rucker (Rutgers University, USA) 4. Anti-Slavery on the Gold Coast Before 1874 Rebecca Shumway (College of Charleston, USA) Slavery and Abolition Under British Colonial Rule (1874-1957) 5. The Claims Wives Made: Slavery and Marriage in the Late Nineteenth Century Gold Coast Colony and Protectorate Trevor R. Getz (San Francisco State University, USA) 6. Signs of an African Emancipation?: Slavery and Emancipation in the Reports (1868-1908) of a Ghanaian Pastor, Kofi Theophilus Opoku Paul Jenkins (University of Basel, Switzerland) 7. An African Abolitionist on the Gold Coast: The Case of Francis P. Fearon Steffen Runkel (Leibniz University Hanover, Germany) Memory, Heritage and the Legacy of Slavery 8. Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Shared History or Shared Heritage? Wilhelmina Donkoh (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana) 9. The Legacy of Indigenous Slavery in Ghana Akosua Perbi (University of Ghana, Ghana) 10. Charged Memories: African Slave Traders in Contemporary Ghanaian Political Discourse Bayo Holsey (Rutgers University, USA) Afterword Ray A. Kea (University of California, Riverside, USA) Select Bibliography Index

Reviews

This volume is a critical reference for anyone who is interested in the history of slavery and its legacy in Ghana. It contributes to the existing literature on the African diaspora and to a well-established history of slavery that seeks to emphasize the assimilative character of indigenous African slavery. Mohammed Bashir Salau, Associate Professor of History, University of Mississippi, USA Rebecca Shumway and Trevor Getz have assembled an excellent team of scholars whose expertise and research in slavery and Ghanaian studies are combined to provide an excellent documentation and analysis of a difficulty subject. For students and scholars interested in learning more about the nature and challenges of slavery and its abolition on the Gold Coast, this is the book for you. David Owusu-Ansah, Professor of History, James Madison University, USA Engaging and provocative, this is an essential text, not just for specialists in the history of slavery in Ghana and its Diaspora, but for anyone interested in the history of West Africa and its relations to the wider Atlantic world. Manuel Barcia, Professor of Latin American History, University of Leeds, UK

This volume is a critical reference for anyone who is interested in the history of slavery and its legacy in Ghana. It contributes to the existing literature on the African diaspora and to a well-established history of slavery that seeks to emphasize the assimilative character of indigenous African slavery. Mohammed Bashir Salau, Associate Professor of History, University of Mississippi, USA Rebecca Shumway and Trevor Getz have assembled an excellent team of scholars whose expertise and research in slavery and Ghanaian studies are combined to provide an excellent documentation and analysis of a difficulty subject. For students and scholars interested in learning more about the nature and challenges of slavery and its abolition on the Gold Coast, this is the book for you. David Owusu-Ansah, Professor of History, James Madison University, USA Engaging and provocative, this is an essential text, not just for specialists in the history of slavery in Ghana and its Diaspora, but for anyone interested in the history of West Africa and its relations to the wider Atlantic world. Manuel Barcia, Professor of Latin American History, University of Leeds, UK The essays collectively achieve the complex task of confronting the related and yet distinct histories of slavery that connect to Ghana. Readers are encouraged to understand the lexicon of terms and varied experiences of slaves in Ghana, as well as the connections between Western African and wider-world understandings of slavery that often prioritise the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Importantly, the collection also speaks to how these sensitive issues continue to play out within Ghanaian societies today. Victoria Ellen Smith, Lecturer, University of Ghana, Ghana

This volume is a critical reference for anyone who is interested in the history of slavery and its legacy in Ghana. It contributes to the existing literature on the African diaspora and to a well-established history of slavery that seeks to emphasize the assimilative character of indigenous African slavery. * Mohammed Bashir Salau, Associate Professor of History, University of Mississippi, USA * Rebecca Shumway and Trevor Getz have assembled an excellent team of scholars whose expertise and research in slavery and Ghanaian studies are combined to provide an excellent documentation and analysis of a difficult subject. For students and scholars interested in learning more about the nature and challenges of slavery and its abolition on the Gold Coast, this is the book for you. * David Owusu-Ansah, Professor of History, James Madison University, USA * Engaging and provocative, this is an essential text, not just for specialists in the history of slavery in Ghana and its Diaspora, but for anyone interested in the history of West Africa and its relations to the wider Atlantic world. * Manuel Barcia, Professor of Latin American History, University of Leeds, UK * The essays collectively achieve the complex task of confronting the related and yet distinct histories of slavery that connect to Ghana. Readers are encouraged to understand the lexicon of terms and varied experiences of slaves in Ghana, as well as the connections between Western African and wider-world understandings of slavery that often prioritise the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Importantly, the collection also speaks to how these sensitive issues continue to play out within Ghanaian societies today. * Victoria Ellen Smith, Lecturer, University of Ghana, Ghana *

Author Information

Rebecca Shumway is Assistant Professor of History at the College of Charleston, USA. She is the author of The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (2011). Trevor R. Getz is Professor of History at San Francisco State University, USA. He is the author of Abina and the Important Men (2011), winner of the James Harvey Robinson Prize.

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