Slave Owners of West Africa

<p>In this groundbreaking book Sandra E. Greene explores the lives of three prominent West African slave owners during the age of abolition. These first-published biographies reveal personal and political accomplishments and concerns economic interests religious beliefs and responses to colonial rule in an attempt to understand why the subjects reacted to the demise of slavery as they did. Greene emphasizes the notion that the decisions made by these individuals were deeply influenced by their personalities desires to protect their economic and social status and their insecurities and sympathies for wives friends and other associates. Knowing why these individuals and so many others in West Africa made the decisions they did Greene contends is critical to understanding how and why the institution of indigenous slavery continues to influence social relations in West Africa to this day.</p>