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Transformations In Slavery: A History Of Slavery In Africa (African Studies)

This history of African slavery from the fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries examines how indigenous African slavery developed within an international context. Paul E. Lovejoy discusses the medieval Islamic slave trade and the Atlantic trade as well as the enslavement process and the marketing of slaves. He considers the impact of European abolition and assesses slavery's role in African history. The book corrects the accepted interpretation that African slavery was mild and resulted in the slaves' assimilation. Instead, slaves were used extensively in production, although the exploitation methods and the relationships to world markets differed from those in the Americas. Nevertheless, slavery in Africa, like slavery in the Americas, developed from its position on the periphery of capitalist Europe. This new edition revises all statistical material on the slave trade demography and incorporates recent research and an updated bibliography.

Series: African Studies (Book 117)

Paperback: 412 pages

Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 3 edition (October 10, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0521176182

ISBN-13: 978-0521176187

Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #648,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #284 in Books > History > World > Slavery & Emancipation #341 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Africa #2316 in Books > History > Africa

This important book is the third edition of Paul Lovejoy's work that combines information and analysis on slavery in Africa. Its scope is vast, covering the whole continent over about five centuries, and on the whole it does what it sets out to well. Like most works of synthesis, it is open to criticism on some details by specialists, but a comprehensive book by a single author is better than a collection of essays that would probably miss out a number of themes or regions. I read the second edition some years ago, and this edition is significantly updated to include new information, although Lovejoy's main arguments haven't changed.This book aims to describe and explain how African history was influenced by slavery. African slavery is a sensitive topic, and Lovejoy is clear that he regards it as a critical feature in the development of many parts of Africa. He argues that it was very much influenced, first by the North African and Middle-eastern Islamic slave trade, and then (and more significantly) by the Atlantic slave trades. Lovejoy considers the Atlantic slave trade caused radical changes which transformed African society. He accepts that the Muslim slave trade and slavery within Africa were also important, but less radically so, and rejects the view that the Atlantic slave trade had only a limited influence on African history. Lovejoy also discounts comparisons with slavery in the Americas, and considers indigenous African slavery had only a limited impact on the development of the Atlantic trade. He pays particular attention to two other factors, enslavement (which rarely occurred outside Africa) and the spread of slavery in Africa after the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade.

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