This is the first book to explore in a systematic manner the strategies used by Africans to protect and defend themselves and their communities from the onslaught of the Atlantic slave trade and how they assaulted it. Focused on West Africa, the essays collected here examine in detail the defensive, protective, and offensive strategies of individuals, families, communities, and states. It's chapters discuss the manipulation of the environment, resettlement, the redemption of captives, the transformation of social relations, political centralization, marronage, violent assaults on ships and ports, shipboard revolts, and controlled participation in the slave trade as a way to procure the means to attack it. It concludes with a reflective epilogue on the memory of slavery. Fighting the Slave Trade presents a much more complete picture of the West African slave trade than has previously been available.
With contributions from the likes of Martin A. Klein, Ismail Rashid, John N. Oriji, Adama Gueye and many more esteemed writers.