Selena Axelrod Winsnes has been engaged, since 1982, in the translation
into English, and editing of Danish language sources to West African
history, sources published from 1697 to 1822, the period during which
Denmark-Norway was an actor in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It
comprises five major books written for the Scandinavian public. They
describe all aspects of life on the Gold Coast [Ghana], the Middle
Passage and the Danish Caribbean islands [US Virgin Islands], as seen
by five different men. Each had his own agenda and mind-set, and the
books, both singly and combined, hold a wealth of information - of
interest both to scholars and lay readers. They provide important
insights into the cultural baggage the enslaved Africans carried with
them to the America's. One of the books, L.F. R¯mer's A Reliable Account
of the Coast of Guinea was runner-up for the prestigious International
Texts Prize awarded by the U.S. African Studies Association.