Making Money: Life, Death, and Early Modern Trade on Africa’s Guinea Coast

255 Pages·2017·4.529 MB·English

by  Colleen E. Kriger

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Life, Death, and Early Modern Trade
on Africa’s Guinea Coast
Colleen Kriger
Making Money
Africa in World History
SerieS editorS: david robinSon, JoSeph C. Miller, and todd Cleveland
James C. McCann
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Laura Lee P. Huttenbach
The Boy Is Gone: Conversations with a Mau Mau General
John M. Mugane
The Story of Swahili
Colleen E. Kriger
Making Money: Life, Death, and Early Modern Trade on
Africa’s Guinea Coast
Making Money
Life, Death, and Early Modern Trade on
Africa’s Guinea Coast
Colleen E. Kriger
OhiO University Press Athens
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
ohioswallow.com
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Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper ƒ ™
27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 5 4 3 2 1
Cover: King of Sestos Receives Jean Barbot.
The National Archives of the UK, Jean Barbot ms, ADM 7/830A.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kriger, Colleen E., author.
Title: Making money : life, death, and early modern trade on Africa's Guinea
Coast / Colleen E. Kriger.
Other titles: Africa in world history.
Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2017. | Series: Africa in
world history
Identifiers: LCCN 2017036292| ISBN 9780896803152 (hc : alk. paper) | ISBN
9780896802964 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780896805002 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Guinea (Region)--Commerce--Great Britain--History--17th
century. | Great Britain--Commerce--Guinea (Region)--History--17th
century. | Royal African Company--History--17th century. | Slave
trade--Guinea (Region) | Guinea (Region)--History--17th century.
Classification: LCC HF3920.Z7 G924 2017 | DDC 382.0966041--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017036292
to My Students—past, present, and Future

ContentS
List of Illustrations ix
Series Editors’ Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
introduction Atlantic Lives
Anglo-African Trade in Northern Guinea 1
one Buyers and Sellers in Cross-Cultural Trade 9
two “Artificers” and Merchants
Making and Moving Goods 36
three West Africans Profiting in Atlantic Trade 65
four Company Property
Captives, Rebels, and Grometos 106
five Free Agents and Local Hires
Managing Men in Northern Guinea 144
conclusion Anglo-African Relations 185
Suggested Further Readings, by Chapter and Topic 191
Notes 199
Works Cited 223
Index 233

illuStrationS
Figures
1.1 Cotton tunic, eleventh or twelfth c. CE, Mali 21
1.2 Upper Guinea Coast and Cape Verde Islands 26
1.3 King of Sestos receives Jean Barbot 33
2.1 European floor loom and weaver 41
2.2 A coppersmith at work 45
2.3 Port Loko Creek and Rokelle River, Sierra Leone Estuary 55
2.4 Trade in captives, Senegambia region 57
3.1 Mouth of the Gambia River and James Island 68
3.2 A Creole ivory horn 75
3.3 Fort and harbor at Cacheu 82
3.4 RAC debt note to Bento Sanchy 92
4.1 Corporal punishment of slave runaways, Brazil and Caribbean 107
4.2 Plan of James Island and the fort 118
5.1 Plants and trees, seventeenth c. Guinea Coast 179
Maps
1.1 Places mentioned in chapter 1 11
1.2 Production and circulation of commodity currencies,
West Africa ca. 1500 13
2.1 Major Afro-Eurasian exports in Anglo-African North Atlantic
trade, seventeenth c. 38
2.2 Royal African Company trading zone, Upper Guinea
Coast, seventeenth c. 49
ix