Examines the history of the Fante people of southern Ghana during the
transatlantic slave trade, 1700 to 1807.
The history of Ghana attracts popular interest out of proportion to its
small size and marginal importance to the global economy. Ghana is the
land of Kwame Nkrumah and the Pan-Africanist movement of the 1960s; it
has been a temporary home to famous African Americans like W. E. B.
DuBois and Maya Angelou; and its Asante Kingdom and signature kente
cloth--global symbols of African culture and pride--are well known.
Ghana also attracts a continuous flow of international tourists because
of two historical sites that are among the most notorious monuments of
the transatlantic slave trade: Cape Coast and Elmina Castles. These
looming structures are a vivid reminder of the horrific trade that gave
birth to the black population of the Americas.
The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade explores the fascinating
history of the transatlantic slave trade on Ghana's coast between 1700
and 1807. Author Rebecca Shumway brings to life the survival experiences
of southern Ghanaians as they became both victims of continuous violence
and successful brokers of enslaved human beings. The era of the slave
trade gave birth to a new culture in this part of West Africa, just as
it was giving birth to new cultures across the Americas. The Fante and
the Transatlantic Slave Trade pushes Asante scholarship to the forefront
of African diaspora and Atlantic World studies by showing the integral
role of Fante middlemen and transatlantic trade in the development of
the Asante economy prior to 1807.
Rebecca Shumway is assistant professor of history at the University of
Pittsburgh.
