African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame [Hardcover]

Anne C. Bailey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0807055123 | ISBN-13: 978-0807055120

“The first history of the Atlantic slave trade culled from the memories of those Africans left behind . . . it will forever alter our understanding of the Middle Passage.” —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional!

The story of the Atlantic slave trade has largely been filtered through the eyes and records of white Europeans, but in this watershed book, Anne C. Bailey focuses on memories of the trade from the African perspective. African chiefs and other elders in an area of southeastern Ghana once famously called “the Old Slave Coast” share stories that reveal that Africans were both traders and victims of the trade. Though Africans were not equal partners with Europeans, their involvement had devastating consequences on their history and sense of identity.

Like victims of trauma, many African societies now experience a fragmented view of their past that partially explains the blanket of silence and shame around the slave trade. Capturing astonishing oral histories that were handed down through generations of storytellers—like an 1856 incident involving the kidnapping of famous drummers and traders by Europeans and Americans—Bailey breaks the deafening silence around slavery and explores the delicate and fragmented nature of historical memory in this rare, unprecedented book.

“In a path-breaking work, Anne C. Bailey utilizes the power of oral traditions to reconstruct the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade. The book powerfully illuminates the importance of the concrete cultural survival of African traditions within the Atlantic slave trade and slavery.” —Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine Segal Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, and chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Focusing on the stories passed down from generation to generation among the Anlo Ewe community in southern Ghana—an area once known as the Slave Coast—Spelman College historian Bailey offers a noteworthy, carefully researched contribution to the study of the African slave trade. Few accounts in the copious literature have adequately addressed the African viewpoint, says Bailey, and the oral histories she offers are designed to correct that silence. Examples include "the incident at Atorkor": sometime in the 1850s, a breakdown in the working (though unequal) relationship between white slave traders and a coastal African chief—the chief's kin were taken along with inland, "approved" captives—heralded a new phase in the slave trade, one in which African slave traders became nearly as vulnerable as their African captives. In compact chapters, Bailey considers the political and economic impact of the slave trade on the West African region; West and Central Africa's class-based practices of domestic slavery; and the issue of European, American and African agency in the slave trade. Though dense prose makes this a better choice for the scholar than the lay reader, Bailey brings unheard historical voices to the fore.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Historian Bailey focuses on the slave trade from the African perspective. As there are few written African records, in contrast to those found in Europe and the Americas, on this topic, she centers her study on the oral tradition, what she refers to as "African human libraries." She primarily focuses on a region in Ghana around one particular oral remembrance told from various perspectives. At the center of this story was an instance when the dominant clan, who had participated in the slave trade by capturing people from the interior for sale, had some of their own members tricked onto a slave ship never to return. One version records the chief as a victim; others record him as a collaborator. In both versions, this story reflected a turning point in this society, where all become vulnerable to the slave trade. Bailey explores the silence surrounding the slave trade and practices including domestic slavery, a legacy that continues today even where these slaves have been married into their masters' families. A fascinating perspective on slavery from the African continent. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (January 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807055123
• ISBN-13: 978-0807055120
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > History > Africa > Ghana

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hard-hitting alternative history, July 4, 2005

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame (Hardcover)

There has long been silence on the issue of slavery and the Atlantic Slave trade: author Anne Bailey experienced this silence growing up in Jamaica, and as an adult became determined to break this silence, first researching the topic, than interviewing chiefs and elders in Ghana. African Voices Of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond The Silence And The Shame focuses on the Anlo Ewe community in Ghana to examine the impact of slavery and slave traders, showing how the trade became unpredictable and moved from the control of Africans to the control of outsiders. Oral narratives reveal why Africans began selling others into transatlantic slavery, providing a hard-hitting alternative history.

5.0 out of 5 stars For the knowledge seekers, April 26, 2010

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KaMau-Mau (Detroit) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame (Paperback)

For those seeking an in depth look into our holocaust, this is an excellent book. In many books on the subject, they tend to separate different aspects until the reader gets the idea that Africans didn't resist and made it fairly easy for Europe to gain their economical power. By the time I finished, I had the same emotions and thoughts as I did when I watched movies like Mississippi Burning, Rosewood and Roots. If this book doesn't empower you, you probably need to visit Ghana's Elmina dungeon and see it for yourself.

7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating material, but flawed writing style., February 8, 2006

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Anthony Sanchez (Fredericksburg, va United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame (Hardcover)

This book is quite enlightening in the history of the African slave trade. Contrary to what one might expect from the title and reviews, the author does not solely rely on oral stories from African elders. The stories that the author quotes, though, are always interesting. Especially, the Africans involvement with the slavery.

Of course, a story is just that, a story. As with many long told stories, there will be many aspects of truth and nontruth. That is not to say that any of the legends told were lies. They will contain versions of events as told by people who were not witness to the event. It is like the child's party game of "telephone." You start with a story at one end of the line and watch how it changes by the time it reaches the last person. Changes are inevitable, although, the basic premise may be intact.

Still, the author provides a useful addition to the literature. So often, the African slave trade discussion is limited to what occurred in America. This book provides stories and facts of the rudimentary aspects of the slave trade such as the problems with shippers obtaining insurance, and the changes in ships designs.

The book informed me on other aspects of the slave trade that I had not known. For example, the international outlawing of the slave transportation did not result in a lessening, but a sharp increase in Atlantic transportation of slaves. Also, the profits arising from slave trading after abolishing were far above what I would have expected. The author too was clearly stunned. That said, the major flaw in this book is that it is so dryly written. Her method of presenting the material is as if one were listening to a dictation. An odd presentation for such an emotional and significant topic.