Planting Rice and Harvesting Slaves: Transformations along the Guinea-Bissau Coast,1400-1900 (Social History of Africa Series) - Softcover

Hawthorne, Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0325070490 ISBN 13: 9780325070490

Publisher: Heinemann, 2003

Synopsis

Hawthorne reevaluates long-held notions about the Atlantic slave trade's impact on a number of "stateless" - or decentralized - societies in Africa's Guinea-Bissau region. He shows that decentralized societies were by no means passive victims of the slave trade, as commonly depicted in the literature, but vigorously defended themselves from the incursions of the raiders.

About this title

About the Author:

Walter Hawthorne is Assistant Professor of History at Ohio University.

Review:

"This is one of the best studies we have on the way a single society coped with the challenges that the Atlantic slave trade posed for all West African societies. It forces us to rethink the way stateless people adapted to the threat that slaving posed and it challenges the idea that African societies can be neatly divided into the raiders and the raided."-Martin A. Klein Professor Emeritus, Department of History University of Toronto

"Hawthorne has written a seminal contribution to the precolonial history of the Upper Guinea Coast. This book masterfully combines the author's impressive knowledge of Balanta culture and oral sources, with meticulous study of early Portuguese written records. It will long serve as the definitive study of Balanta history. In addition, this book is a major contribution to the theoretical knowledge of how small scale decentralized societies on the Upper Guinea Coast responded to, and survived, the development of the Atlantic slave trade."-Peter Mark Author of 'Portuguese' Style and Luso-African Identity; Precolonial Senegambia, 16th-19th Centuries

About this edition

• Publisher: Heinemann
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0325070490
• ISBN 13: 9780325070490
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280