The Political Economy of the Interior Gold Coast: The Asante and the Era of Legitimate Trading, 18071875

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This book analyzes the Gold Coast and the Asante kingdom in the years following the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and prior to the start of colonial rule. The Asante state, one of the largest in the Gold Coast and West Africa after the eighteenth century is the central focus of this work. Studying their transition from a large scale supplier of captives to the transatlantic slave trade to traders in legitimate goods is a critical component that should be analyzed across West Africa. This work highlights the political and economic relationships between the interior Asante state with surrounding African groups and Europeans, chiefly British traders who entered the region in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Reviews

Hargroves study provocatively asks us to consider the roles of Africans in ending the transatlantic slave trade. By placing the end of the slave trade on the Gold Coast (Ghana) within the context of the much longer history of transatlantic trade and diplomacy in West Africa, this work offers a new perspective from which to assess Asantes history as an economic and political power. It is among an important group of new works that insist on the inseparable qualities of African history and the history of the African diaspora. -- Rebecca Shumway, College of Charleston
Hargrove explores a wide range of political and economic developments surrounding the rise and fall of the Asante during the era of British imperial expansion and he shift from the slave trade to legitimate commerce. The book does provide considerable detail, useful statistics, and some excellent maps. * CHOICE *

Author Bio

Jarvis L. Hargrove is assistant professor at North Carolina Central University.