Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades (African Studies, Series Number 67)

Manning packs a great deal into this short book. This is an analytically oriented overview of the history of the African slave trade. Manning's primary goals are to trace the evolution of the slave trade over several centuries and to assess its impact on African society. This is a relatively difficult task because of the considerable time period covered, the limitations of the data, and the existence of considerable regional differences within Africa. Manning relies heavily on relatively good information about the volume of and prices of slaves in the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a "window" into African society. Relatively simple economic principles and demographic modeling is used to estimate the impact of the African slave trade.Manning divides Africa into 3 segments; the West Coast (Mauretania to Angola), the East Coast (Mozambique to Kenya), and the Savannah & Horn. This division is justified by the historic patterns of the slave trade (West Coast across Atlantic; East Coast-both Atlantic and Oriental trade; Savannah and Horn-Mediterrenean & Middle East) and somewhat differing intensity of the slave trades across time in different regions.Drawing on an extenive body of data, Manning shows the large volume of the slave trade, particularly across the Atlantic in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and its huge impact on African society. He argues very well that the slave trade depressed population growth and often led to population decline. Different regions had different experiences. In the West Coast, the demand for male slaves as plantation workers led to disproportionate export of men and retention of female slaves in Africa. In the Savannah & Horn, and later in the East Coast, the preferred export was young women, and male slaves were retained in Africa.Manning has a series of concise but interesting discussions about the consequences of population loss and altered sex ratios in different African regions. One common feature was clearly the development of a huge internal African slave trade with very destructive consequences, including intensification of wars fought increasingly to obtain slaves.Described as well is an interesting historical succession. The trans-Atlantic slave trade was the largest and had the largest impact but its suppression brought with it some unexpected consequences. With the decline and suppression of the trans-Atlantic trade, the relative glut of slaves within Africa enhanced the slave trade to the East, mainly in the first half of the 19th century. The subsequent decline of the trade to the east also caused a glut of slaves and this resulted in an increased internal African reliance on slaves for production and enhanced the internal African slave trade, which was only suppressed by conquest of Africa by European colonial governments. The same colonial governments, however, often turned a blind eye to, or actually encouraged, forms of coerced labor very similar to slavery.This book was published about 20 years ago but I believe its general conclusions remain valid.

This is an extremely useful overview of African life and how slavery disrupted so much. The important take-away from this work is that Africans were often equal actors in this history -- not only victims.

Have you ever wondered about the impact of slavery on Africa or how slavery contributed to the making of our contemporary world? Or have you ever thought about how the world should come to terms with the legacy of African enslavement? Then Pat Manning's text is a good place to start. The text graphically shows the varying demographic impact of enslavement on different regions and peoples of the continent. It illustrates how the forced emigration of Africans adversely affected economies, politics, societies and cultures in different parts of Africa. Manning forceful restates Eric Williams' contention that slavery did lead to the development of capitalism - within the context of the larger Atlantic economy rather than the narrow Caribbean economy. For me, Manning is at his best when he discusses how the victims and beneficiaries of African enslavement can come to terms with the legacy of that tragedy. The main criticism of the text is the excessive (and sometimes redundant) quantative simulations and graphs that it contains. Nonetheless, it is a good starting point for students, scholars and general readers interested in the subject of slavery in Africa.

I'm not a historian or history major, but I found this book to be a good introduction, and yet more valuable than just an introduction.(I kept this kind of vague to avoid spoiling it) Manning explained the economics of slavery's from its beginning and why it contributed to its end (abolitionist too). He wasn't lieing to the readers by portraying all Africans as all naiive victims... Manning clearly points out how slavery decimated Africa economically and helped create an African identity.