SLAVE OWNERS OF WEST AFRICA
SLAVE OWNERS OF WEST AFRICA
Decision Making in the Age of Abolition
Sandra E. Greene
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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2017 by Sandra E. Greene
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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Greene, Sandra E., 1952 author.
Title: Slave owners of West Africa : decision making in the age of abolition / Sandra E. Greene.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017003816 (print) | LCCN 2017008803 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253025975 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253025999 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253026026 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: SlaveholdersGhanaBiography. | SlavesEmancipationGhanaHistory19th century. | SlavesEmancipationGhanaHistory20th century. | SlaveryAfrica, WestHistory19th century. | SlaveryAfrica, WestHistory20th century. | Africa, WestSocial conditions19th century. | Africa, WestSocial conditions20th century.
Classification: LCC HT1331 .G743 2017 (print) | LCC HT1331 (ebook) | DDC 306.3/62096609034dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017003816
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To William Sohne,
whose support made this book possible
Contents
Acknowledgments
T HANKING ALL THOSE who made this book possible is no small task. For forty years, I have been welcomed and supported by the Ewe-speaking peoples of Ghana in my explorations of their cultures and histories. Without the willingness of so many, the hundreds who opened their hearts and homes to me, the many who encouraged me to expand my work to include more and more areas of the Ewe-speaking areas of Ghana, this work would have been impossible. I have benefitted greatly from their wisdom, their willingness to share their fears and frustrations, their hopes and dreams, as well as their memories and family records. So it is they whom I wish to thank first and foremost. Akpe Akpe! Especially important for this project was William Sohne, to whom this book is dedicated. As a member of the Amegashie family, he was critical in supporting this project. Most families, wherever they live, are naturally sensitive about how their ancestors are remembered. Flattering and funny family memories can overlap with stories unearthed by historians. But information about long deceased family members can also emerge that is less than admirable. In such instances, it is not surprising that living family members find these revelations embarrassing and then seek to distance themselves from the ignoble actions of their ancestors by keeping such information out of the public eye. I salute William Sohne for resisting this impulse. And I thank him as well for sharing with me his own genealogical work on the Amegashie/Quist family. My interactions with members of the Tamakloe family have been equally positive. I thank them, especially Christian Nani Tamakloe, for also sharing with me the memories they have passed from generation to generation, as well as copies of the various legal documents, and the genealogical work they have done themselves on their own ancestor. Again, aka akpe.
From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, German missionaries associated with the Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft (NDMG) were present in a number of different Ewe-speaking communities in what is now southern Ghana and Togo. Throughout this period, they recorded and published their observations about the peoples, cultures, economies, and histories of the communities in which they lived. Professional translations of these writings have been critical for this study. For this work, I am especially grateful to Nadia Rodriquez, Anna Horakova, Timothy Haupt, Svenja Mller, Marissa Nederhouser, Sean Franzel, Chris Muenzen, Aife Naughton, Kelsey Dow, and Patrick Vacca. Gaining access to these documents often proved to be particularly challenging. The NDMG that operated in what is now south-eastern Ghana was a relatively small, underfunded organization in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century. Often archival and library holdings of their publications are incomplete. Yet, I received wonderful support from various libraries and librarians as I sought to locate different materials both published and unpublished. Accordingly, I wish to thank for their wonderful support, Cornell Universitys Interlibrary loan staff; the University of Ghanas Balme Library Reference Librarian, Daniel Opoku; my colleague and friend Larry Yarak, who with Daniel Opoku located (and rescued from possible destruction) some of the NDMG publications held at Balme Library; and the National Humanities Center, which provided incredible support with regard to library and archival resources, as well as editing, office, and IT support during the spring term of 2015.
In preparing this work for publication, I shared drafts of different chapters with a number individuals and groups. Among these, are attendees of the Cornell University History Department Comparative History Colloquium, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin, Germany, the 2015 Cornell University Mellon Diversity Seminar, and the 2015 National Humanities Center seminar on Memory (organized by Ann Gold). Trevor Getz and an anonymous reviewer read the entire manuscript. I am most grateful for their comments. All have provided very useful feedback, although I, of course, am solely responsible for all interpretations presented here.
SLAVE OWNERS OF WEST AFRICA
Introduction
A FOREIGN POWER extends its rule over the community in which you live. What would you do? How would you respond? Resistance? But in what form and for how long? Acceptance of and adaptation to the new status quo? But what does that entail? Cautious optimism when that foreign power states it will rectify long-standing grievances? Wariness because of the possibility of unfulfilled promises? These are the questions that West Africans faced in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. By the end of World War One, most everyone in the entire region found themselves colonized by either France, Britain, Germany, or Portugal. And with colonization came the imposition of laws that impacted the very structures that had governed their lives. Local political institutions and practices were altered or abolished; communities found themselves governed by individuals who were often imposed upon them, individuals who would have not been considered even remotely legitimate in such positions in the past. Certain cultural practices suddenly became illegal. European missionaries who had operated in the area only with the permission of a communitys leaders, were now perceived as not only proselytizers of a new religion, but individuals whose activitiesno matter how objectionablehad the backing of an imperial power that too often took little notice of local concerns. At the same time, novel opportunities emerged. Those who had felt oppressed by the very order that others sought to defendsome women, young people, strangers, and the enslavedassessed and at times embraced the changes that the new order introduced. Innumerable studies have documented how West Africans responded to the early years of colonial rule. They offered, individually and collectively, simultaneously and in sequence, resistance, accommodation, manipulation of the new institutions imposed, withdrawal from the colonial orbit of control, and engagement to take full advantage of the opportunities associated with colonialism. Of particular concern here is how West Africans responded to one particular aspect of colonial rule: the abolition of slavery.
