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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Archaeology of Slavery in West Africa
Author:Bredwa-Mensah, Yaw
Year:1999
Periodical:Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana
Issue:3
Pages:27-45
Language:English
Geographic terms:West Africa
Ghana
Subjects:slaves
slave trade
agricultural workers
archaeology
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
colonialism
Labor and Employment
Economics and Trade
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/41406648
Abstract:Anthropologists and historians have painted a broad image of the impact of European contact in West Africa, beginning in the fifteenth century and spanning a period of more than five hundred years. The archaeological study of the European contact period in West Africa has encompassed the surveying of European trading posts, the identification and documentation of extant colonial buildings, and heritage management concerns. In order to obtain a more balanced interpretation of the interactions initiated in West Africa during the period of European expansion, recent archaeological research has focused on African settlements, in particular on sociocultural change associated with the European presence. Archaeology also has great potential in contributing to the study of the impact of the slave trade on West African societies. Slave sites developed as a result of European contact and the slave trade and took three main forms: slave quarters located in African towns, fortified dungeons in European forts and slave settlements on plantations. Since 1992 the author has been involved in archaeological research at some of the Danish plantations in Ghana. Evidence from one such site, Bibease, provides a glimpse of the lives of the slave plantation workers. Bibliogr., ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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