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Agaja was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, who ruled from 1718 until 1740. He came to the throne after his brother King Akaba. During his reign, Dahomey expanded significantly and took control of key trade routes for the Atlantic slave trade by conquering Allada (1724) and Whydah (1727). Wars with the powerful Oyo Empire to the east of Dahomey resulted in Agaja accepting tributary status to that empire and providing yearly gifts. After this, Agaja attempted to control the new territory of the kingdom of Dahomey through militarily suppressing revolts and creating administrative and ceremonial systems. Agaja died in 1740 after another war with the Oyo Empire and his son Tegbessou became the new king. Agaja is credited with creating many of the key government structures of Dahomey, including the Yovogan and the Mehu.
The guinea was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where much of the gold used to make the coins was sourced. It was the first English machine-struck gold coin, originally representing a value of 20 shillings in sterling specie, equal to one pound, but rises in the price of gold relative to silver caused the value of the guinea to increase, at times to as high as thirty shillings. From 1717 to 1816, its value was officially fixed at twenty-one shillings.
Sir John Hawkins was an English naval commander, naval administrator, privateer and slave trader.
Olaudah Equiano, known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka in modern southern Nigeria. Enslaved as a child in West Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.
The Zong massacre was a mass killing of more than 130 enslaved African people by the crew of the British slave ship Zong on and in the days following 29 November 1781. The William Gregson slave-trading syndicate, based in Liverpool, owned the ship as part of the Atlantic slave trade. As was common business practice, they had taken out insurance on the lives of the enslaved Africans as cargo. According to the crew, when the ship ran low on drinking water following navigational mistakes, the crew threw enslaved Africans overboard.
The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. It was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of England; the RAC was founded after Charles II ascended to the English throne in the 1660 Stuart Restoration, and he granted it a monopoly on all English trade with Africa. While the company's original purpose was to trade for gold in the Gambia River, as Prince Rupert of the Rhine had identified gold deposits in the region during the Interregnum, the RAC quickly began trading in slaves, which became its largest commodity.
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The Kingdom of Whydah ( known locally as; Glexwe / Glehoue, but also known and spelt in old literature as; Hueda, Whidah,Ajuda, Ouidah, Whidaw,Juida, and Juda was a kingdom on the coast of West Africa in what is now Benin. It was a major slave trading area which exported more than one million Africans to the United States, the Caribbean and Brazil before closing its trade in the 1860s. In 1700, it had a coastline of around 16 kilometres ; under King Haffon, this was expanded to 64 km, and stretching 40 km inland.
Savi is a town in Benin that was the capital of the Kingdom of Whydah prior to its capture by the forces of Dahomey in 1727.
The African Company of Merchants or Company of Merchants Trading to Africa was a British chartered company operating from 1752 to 1821 in the Gold Coast area of modern Ghana, engaged in the Atlantic slave trade.
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John Lok was the son of Sir William Lok, the great-great-great-grandfather of the philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). In 1554 he was captain of a trading voyage to Guinea. An account of his voyage was published in 1572 by Richard Eden.
Francis Moore was a British travel writer of the 18th century.
Fort Winneba was a slave fort designed to facilitate the trade in enslaved people. The Royal African Company built the fort in 1694, on the Gold Coast, in modern-day Ghana.
Fort Tantumquery is a military structure designed to facilitate the slave trade. The Royal African Company built it in the 1720s, at Otuam in the Mfantsiman Municipal District, Central Region, Ghana, in what was known at the time as the Gold Coast.
Admiral Colpoys was a vessel built in South America in 1792 that the British captured circa 1800. Her new name refers to Admiral John Colpoys. She first traded between London and the Caribbean. Between 1802 and 1807 she made three voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. After the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 she became a merchant vessel. Then in 1813 new owners turned her towards seal hunting. She made four complete voyages to South Georgia before she was wrecked in 1817 during her fifth seal hunting voyage.
Young William was a ship launched in 1794 at Whitby, Yorkshire, England. She made a voyage to Botany Bay for the British East India Company (EIC), and then on her way to China discovered or rediscovered several Pacific Islands. Later, she made two voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was wrecked in September 1802, as she was returning from Jamaica after having delivered her captives.
The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade is a 2002 book by Robert W. Harms in which he offers a history of slave trade from 1731 onward. It is a winner of the Frederick Douglass Prize, the J. Russell Major Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize and the Gustav Ranis International Book Prize.
References
- 1 2 Harms, Robert (2002). The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds Of The Slave Trade. New York: Basic Books. pp. 141–142.
- ↑ Burton, Richard (1864). A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome. London: Tinsley Brothers.
- ↑ Smith, William (1745). A new voyage to Guinea (Second ed.). London: John Nourse.
