Urban Slavery in West and West Central Africa during the Transatlantic Slave Trade

ABSTRACT The trade in enslaved captives across the Atlantic Ocean shaped West and West Central Africa’s urban shoreline. Towns adjusted to or were created for service to that trade. In turn, these towns shaped the socioeconomic realities of their hinterlands. Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, this impact was felt nowhere more than among the enslaved and freed-slave migrants who made their way to perceived opportunities on the coast. This article examines these migrants’ experiences through a comparative regional approach. We look first at Saint Louis du Senegal and then compare the Gold Coast, Whydah, Lagos, the Bight of Biafra, Luanda, and Benguela. Each of these cities had its own particular qualities, often shaped by geography, but there were also common features. They all depended heavily on slave labor and, in several, female slave ownership was important. Most significantly, slavery in these cities was marked by considerable autonomy for the enslaved.