'[I]n search of their relations, to set at liberty as many as they had the means': ransoming captives in nineteenth century Yorubaland

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Periodical article

Title:	'[I]n search of their relations, to set at liberty as many as they had the means': ransoming captives in nineteenth century Yorubaland
Author:	Ojo, Olatunji
Year:	2010
Periodical:	Nordic Journal of African Studies (ISSN 1459-9465)
Volume:	19
Issue:	1
Pages:	58-76
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Yoruba prisoners of war sales 1800-1899
External link:	https://njas.fi/njas/article/view/214/202
Abstract:	The practice of ransoming, which upon payment of a fee or prisoner exchange, restored captives to freedom and prevented their enslavement, was a universal institution in 19th-century Yorubaland, Nigeria. Similar, but different from slave redemption, ransoming prevented the transition of captives into slaves. Captors supported ransoming because it fetched them higher value than the sale of the same captive into slavery. Market forces, as well as the ethnicity, gender, religion, class, and skill of captives, among other considerations, were all central to successful ransoming operations. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]